Percy Jackson: Book 1- The Lightning theif
by blackmailingqueen
Summary: The characters in the percy jackson universe, that means the Kanes, Magnus, the heroes of Olympus, and of course Percy Jackson. They have been brought to Olympus so that they can all read their stories. They will be brought before the events of any of their books, like right before. Many stories for this series. One chapter per update. I don't own the cover picture. found on google
1. I'M BACK!

I'm redoing this story!

It will have changes, but don't worry it's basically the same story.

See ya!


	2. It Begins

In this story I made it to where it's before Luke took the dragon quest, but still have him be the same age as in the story.

I own nothing! Absolutely nothing! All the characters belong to Rick Riordan.

On with the story!

* * *

It was a normal day on Mount Olympus, the gods were lounging on their thrones, when suddenly there was a blinding light and Hades was there, standing next to a fourteen year old mortal? Before anyone could speak the girl cleared her throat. "Okay now that all the gods are here, I can start to bring the others here."

She said it so cheerfully that they almost weren't afraid of her, until Zeus stood up and bellowed, "Who are you and what are you talking about?!" The other gods flinched at the tone he used but the girl didn't seemed phased at all, in fact she ignored him and turned to Hades. "You'll need a chair we'll be here for a while."

Hades complied and created a throne, still confuses as to who the girl was and why she wasn't afraid of all the immortal beings around her, that could kill her with the blink of an eyelash.

"Now that your all seated I can introduce myself." They were all confused and looked at Zeus to find him seated once again. "You can call me Destiny, in a few minutes I'm going to bring many humans and half-bloods here so that you can read their stories, I will bring them here because they all in some way are connected to the gods. Now that that's done any questions?" Destiny explained. Athena spoke, "What's to keep us from leaving right now and killing you?" Destiny smirked. "Well you see at the moment, while you do have your powers, you are unable to hurt me or leave because I've taken you to an alternate dimension where I'm in control." Once they heard this the gods looked at the young human in a new light, who was she that she was able to do that? And once again there was a blinding light and she was gone.

"Brother, do you know who she is?" Poseidon asked Hades. "I do not. One moment I was sitting in the underworld and the next thing I knew I was standing here next to the girl." He confessed.

A few minutes later she reappeared with two children, a boy and a girl, the boy being older than the girl. They were both sleeping and Destiny laid them down next to the Hearth. Soon they both woke up. "CARTER!?" The younger girl shouted. The boy seemed even more confused than she did. That's when Destiny spoke up, "Hello Kane children. My name is Destiny and for the next while you'll be reading books about your future and the future of others like you. Around you are the Greek gods, they will be reading along with you. Please excuse my rushededness I still have everyone else to collect, goodbye for now." And with that said she vanished.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity she reappeared with many more people. (The characters of PJO and HOO) She didn't even wait to explain anything and disappeared once again showing up moments later with a boy.

She smiled and snapped her fingers and fourteen books landed in Athena's lap. "Lady Athena you are the goddess of knowledge so I thought it would be best if you were the one to read the books." Destiny explained at everyone's surprised faces. "Why don't we have introductions now?"

"We are the Olymians, I am Zeus, the king of gods, and my wife is Hera. My brothers Hades and Poseidon. Next are Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus." Zeus said introducing his entire disfunctional family.

The half-bloods went next.

"Uh my name is Percy Jackson, I'm twelve years old, and I have dyslexia and ADHD." Percy said, and Poseidon stiffened.

"I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"The name's Luke Castellan, son of Hermes. And next to me are the Stoll brothers, Conner and Travis, also sons of Hermes." And before anyone could blink Destiny was in front of him and punched him right in the face. "Sorry, that's for later. I'm hoping that by reading these books that punch will be totally undeserved." She said before anyone could try and kill her for it.

"Okay, I'm Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus, and head councilor of the Hephaestus cabin."

"Obviously I'm the daughter of Aphrodite, Silena Beauregard." Silena said while smiling.

"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares." As she said that Percy silently backed away from her.

Next two siblings stood up. "My name is Bianca di Angelo, and this is my brother Nico." The older girl said nervously.

"My name is Thalia Grace. Daughter of Zeus." And with that Hera rounded on her husband and started to yell at him for breaking his oath.

After Hera finished yelling at him the Roman half-bloods introduced themselves.

"I'm Leo Valdez and I like to create stuff." The boy said.

"I'm Piper McLean."

"Hazel Levesque."

"Hi I'm Reyna."

"Uh hi. I'm Jason Grace." Before Hera could berate her husband, again, for having two children with THE SAME MORTAL, Thalia rushed up and hugged him, she explained that she was his older sister but she thought he was dead.

After a few minutes of complete chaos Destiny got everything settled down and the rest of the people were introduced.

"Hi I'm Sadie Kane and this is my boring older brother Carter Kane, and wow this is so cool!" the girl wit the slight British accent said excitedly.

Finally the last boy said, "My name is Magnus Chase." Annabeth got a little teary and Destiny gave the cousins time to reconnect.

"Great now that we all know each other we can start the books!" Destiny smiled and Athena opened the book called Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. Already the gods had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

That's all for the beginning!


	3. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 up!

I own absolutely NOTHING!

Enjoy the story!

Before Athena could actually start the book Destiny spoke again, "Sorry, but these first five books are the adventures of Percy Jackson. They start when he is twelve, also they are in his point of view." She quickly explained and then vanished. Instantly reappearing with a tied and gagged Gabe, all the non-human friends of Percy, and an unharmed Sally, and Rachel Virginia Dare. Percy actually smiled when he saw Gabe gagged. "You can start now Lady Athena." Destiny said smiling and sitting down.

 _ **(Look ... now.)**_

"What's a half-blood?" Percy and the Di Angelos asked. Sally decided to tell them. "A half-blood is a child of the gods and a mortal human." She explained. "I'm a half-blood?" her son said confused. Sally just nodded her head.

 _ **(Believe ...**_ _ ****_ _ **ways.)**_

The half-bloods could be be seen checking things off on their fingers. Chiron was also nodding his head sadly. Athena rolled her eyes, would it be this bad the entire time they were there?

 _ **(If ... you.)**_

"What will be coming for us?" A frightened Nico asked. "Monsters." Was all he got in response, causing him to draw closer to his sister.

 _ **(Don't ... New York.)**_

"Oh Percy, again?" his mother asked sadly. He could only shrug his shoulders, it hadn't happened yet.

 _ **(Am ... stuff.)**_

'I've got a bad feeling about this child, Zeus.' Hera said to her husband through telepathy. 'I do as well, and the title of the book disturbs me, the Lighting Thief. Who would steal my lighting?'

 _ **(I ... were.)**_

He didn't even bother to correct it, and neither did Grover. Those trips were more evil than many monsters.

 _ **(But ... hopes.)**_

The aforementioned teacher seemed to blush at the compliment.

 _ **(Mr. Brunner ... sleep.)**_

Percy's mother looked mad that her son fell asleep in class, he had a hard enough time as it was. But she also looked happy that her son took an interest in Latin.

 _ **(I ... trouble.)**_

"Why do I still hope for that? I mean I already know it's impossible for me not to get in trouble." Percy said saddly. And all the half-bloods wanted to tell him it's not his fault it's part of being the child of a god.

 _ **(Boy, ... idea.)**_

"Wow you have even more bad luck than me!" Clarisse said, while also thinking he might be a son of Ares.

 _ **(This ... sandwich.)**_

"That sounds incredibly disgusting." Demeter said, thinking of peanut butter and ketchup in the same sandwich. Everyone agreed, and Percy clenched his fists in anger that his best friend was being picked on again.

 _ **(Grover ... target.)**_

"Hey!"

 _ **(He ... cafeteria.)**_

"Whose side are you on?!"

"The truth!"

Everyone thought it was funny to watch the two friends fight like that.

 _ **(Anyway, ... trip.)**_

All the half-bloods just sighed, knowing how annoying that was.

 _ **("I'm ... down.)**_

"And failed horribly." Percy said, angry that he really couldn't do anything.

 _ **("It's ... happens. ")**_

This made Poseidon frown, were all half-bloods treated this unfairly by normal humans? 'Brother you seem troubled.' Hades asked the lord of the sea. 'Of course my son will be blamed for anything that goes wrong on this trip. Are all of our children treated like this?' Hades had a mildly surprised face on. 'So you claim the boy as yours?' Poseidon scoffed, 'Of course, but don't be too quick to judge brother, I can tell the Di Angelo are you children as well.' And with that he refused to speak to his brother anymore for the moment.

 _ **(Looking ... there.)**_

"Percy!" His mother scolded him. "Mom I don't know why I said that it hasn't happened yet!" He defended himself, not even saying that he shouldn't have said it.

 _ **(In-school ... thousand years.)**_

All the gods seemed pleased that at least a part of them was able to stun the all their children. Even if it wasn't their all powerful forms.

 _ **(He ... evil eye.)**_

At this Hades groaned, having a very good idea who his teacher really was, and he didn't like it at all. 'Family I fear I know the meaning of the chapter title now.' This got the other gods attention. 'What brother?' 'It means that this is a furry. I however do not know why she would be posing as a teacher, but I feel we will soon learn.'

 _ **(Mrs. Dodds ... nervous breakdown.)**_

"Why did she have a breakdown?" Rachel asked. Percy smirked, "She worked in a school full of delinquent children. Most of us have bets on when all the teachers will go bonkers." Percy said, then looked at his mom, "Not me and Grover of course, we would never do something like that."

 _ **(From ... devil spawn.)**_

From around the room people could hear Hera muttering, "You'd better not be." This caused Destiny to laugh and leave everyone else scared and/or confused.

 _ **(She ... right. ")**_

All the gods stared at Percy in shock, he could tell even without being able to see through the mist?! "What?!" Percy asked. "It's just impressive. Not many can tell as easily as you can without training." Athena answered him. This just confused Percy more.

 _ **(Mr. Brunner ...**_ _ **represents?")**_

All the half-bloods groaned to themselves, hating it when Chiron made them recite the ancient history of their parents.

 _ **(I ... behind me.)**_ __

"I agree with that girl!" Bianca said.

 _ **("-and ... his kids.'")**_

Surprisingly it was Clarisse who answered her, although angrily, "You might not have to, but some will have to know to save their lives."

 _ **("And ... radar ears.)**_

Connor Stoll snorted, "Ain't that the truth."

 _ **(I ... everything.)**_

"Actually much older and they most likely have seen everything, the good… and the bad." Annabeth told Percy, just confusing him more.

 _ **("You ... correctly.)**_

You could hear mumbles of agreement from all the half-bloods who had ever had Chiron teach them history.

 _ **(I ... Christmas.)**_

The gods all looked worried, this meant whoever stole the lightning bolt had done it during the Winter Solstice.

 _ **(We'd ... thing.)**_ __

Percy snorted, "Of course she doesn't." and looked away angrily.

 _ **(Grover ... me.)**_

Almost all the half-bloods gave him sad stares, he's lasted this long… but how long would it be before a monster killed him?

 _ **(Mr. Brunner ... liquid Cheetos.)**_

"She probably just ate Cheetos like an animal and doesn't know how to use a napkin." Destiny said while clenching her fists.

 _ **(I tried ... "Percy pushed me!")**_

At this point every god in attendance looked at Poseidon and waited for Hera to attack, they didn't have to wait long. "YOU BROKE THE OATH AS WELL!? I EXPECTED IT FROM MY HUSBAND AND POSSIBLY EVEN HADES BUT YOU?! UGH MEN!"

The god that had just gotten attacked looked very much relieved that she hadn't done anything worse than yell at him.

 _ **(Mrs. Dodds ... to say.)**_

"I have a feeling a lot of these moments will turn up before we leave this place." Annabeth said, making some laugh, while others just nodded their heads in agreement.

 _ **("Come ... to death.)**_

Grover mumbled, "For good reason."

(She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood, " she said.

 _ **("But-" ... smirked.)**_

Even the most gentle of people there had to be held back from attacking the book.

 _ **(I gave ... stare.)**_ __

"Which of course is nothing like an Ares death stare, but still pretty good." Grover said to Percy, making him curious as to how Grover knew what that looked like.

 _ **(Then I ... so sure.)**_

Suddenly Connor Stoll stood up and shouted, "NEVER TRUST A SCHOOL COUNSELOR!" making everyone laugh.

 _ **(I went ... novel.)**_

At this Athena looked at the centaur and gave him a look that said, 'If this entire series happened because you got lost in a book, I may kill you.' He gulped and hoped she didn't really kill him.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **empty.)**_

Suddenly all the half-bloods look nervous, hoping that he will have the sense to run before she attacks.

 _ **(Mrs. Dodds ... growling.)**_

"Well that's reassuring." Nico said sarcastically.

 _ **(Even ... me.)**_

All the half-bloods looked at him like, 'that's not going to stop this teacher.'

 _ **(I ... book.)**_

"Percy!" His mother scolded, and would've gone into extreme detail about why he shouldn't have done that, but she was too worried for him.

 _ **("Well?" ... ribbons.)**_

Annabeth gasped, "A Fury?"

 _ **(Then things ... Hisss!)**_

The half-bloods cheered, he destroyed her!

 _ **(Mrs. Dodds ...**_ _ **"Who?")**_

"Yeah. Who's Mrs. Kerr? And for that matter why did the pen turn into a sword?!" Nico asked looking freaked out and awed at the same time.

 _ **("Our ...**_ _ **"Who?")**_

Percy turned to look at his friend and said, "I know you know who I'm talking about." Grover just turned away and wouldn't speak.

 ** _(But ..._** ** _"Who?")_**

"Oh come on! Not you too!" Percy said hoping this book wouldn't say he was really crazy.

 _ **("The... alright?")**_

Destiny looked at all of them and announced in a loud speaker voice, "The next chapter is called, Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death." This scared many of the campers and the others who knew the meaning of this, causing Destiny to laugh.

Well that's chapter 1!

Sorry if the characters don't talk as much as others because I might forget they are there.


	4. Luke finds out his destiny, maybe

_Lasttime-_

 _Destiny looked at all of them and announced in a loud speaker voice, "The next chapter is called, Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death." This scared many of the campers and the others who knew the meaning of this, causing Destiny to laugh._

Now:

Before Athena could continue Destiny pulled aside Hermes and Luke. "What's going on? I want to hear the rest of the story." Luke complained. Hermes said nothing but looked like he agreed with his son.

"Don't worry you two, you'll hear the story. But before you do you need to see something, something I did all of this to avoid." Destiny said sadly.

Then before they could say anything, she pressed her palms onto their foreheads and they were transported.

They saw everything that they would read about. At some point, Luke started to cry, she didn't hold it against him. Then she removed her hands and they were back, Luke continued to cry. "It's hard to see, I know, but it can be changed. Luke _you_ can change it." Destiny said.

Luke was silently crying, "I did all that? Just because I was angry?" he sounded terrified. Hermes put a hand on his son's shoulder and told him quietly, "Anger makes us do terrible things, but that doesn't make us bad people, it just means we're alive." if you looked closely you could also see that Hermes was crying.

He looked at Destiny and said, "Why are you doing this?" Destiny looked at Luke sadly, "This is what will happen in the books, I thought it would be best if you were to know what would happen. I want you to know that so that you can change it. I'm not always set in stone." She said as she winked at them. When they heard the last part they stared at her in shock.

"You are Destiny? As in the force that controls how we end up?" Hermes said shocked. She twisted her hand and said, "Yes and no. I don't control how you end up, that's my sister Fate, you've met her messengers, The Fates. I'm what you end up being. Fate is the journey, Destiny is the destination. I did this so that your destination is changed from what it says in the books." She said and then lead them back into the room where everyone else was waiting.

"I'm sorry it took so long. We can start now Lady Athena." Destiny said smiling.

I don't know if this is even any good, but there you go.


	5. Chapter 2

_Lasttime:_

 _"I'm sorry it took so long. We can start now Lady Athena." Destiny said smiling._

Now:

 _ **(I ... experience)**_

The children of the gods snorted, you couldn't be a demigod without something weird going on.

 _ **(but ... me.)**_

"No that would be the Mist affecting everyone but you." Clarisse said, laughing.

 _ **(The ...**_ _ **psycho.)**_

"Not yet. Just give it time!" A camper said while smiling.

 _ **(It ... lying.)**_

"Dude you stink at lying! How have you not given yourself before now?" Luke said good naturedly while laughing.

 _ **(Something ...**_ _ **museum.)**_

All the demigods were looking at him with a 'Duh' face on. Percy blushed.

 _ **(I ... room.)**_

Hera glared at her husband for causing another series of storms in the mortal world.

 _ **(A ...**_ _ **year.)**_

At this all the gods looked at Poseidon.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **class.)**_

Percy's mom just looked sad, at this point.

 _ **(Finally ... good)**_

Even as his mother glared at him, Percy and all the half-bloods cracked up laughing at what he would eventually call his English teacher.

 _ **(The ... Academy)**_

"Big surprise there!"

 _ **(Fine ... parties)**_

"Um, Percy who's your stepfather?" Nico asked curious. Percy smirked and said, "The guy bound and gagged over there." and with that pointed over towards Gabe, who everyone had forgotten about. He was still struggling to untie the knots. "Oh." Was all he said in reply, even from where he was sitting the man seemed to radiate a stench so repulsive everyone had a good five feet between themselves and him.

 _ **(And ... me)**_

"I'll have you know I can take care of myself just fine!" Grover said, trying to be angry but failing, making everyone (himself included) laugh.

 _ **(I'd ... for)**_

Everyone turned towards Mrs. Jackson, waiting for an outburst but all they got was, "I'm just glad he studied for any test at all."

 _ **(I ... him)**_

"Good." All the demigods said.

 _ **(The ... it)**_

All the demigods nodded in agreement, even some of the adults.

 _ **(I ... book)**_

His mother looked surprised, was he really going to do what she thought he was going to?

 _ **(I'd ... floor)**_

"What's going on?" Percy said, feeling like he was going to hear something about himself from his favorite teacher. No one heard him.

 _ **(I ... adult)**_

'Fair enough.' everyone thought.

 _ **(Alone ... can)**_

"Hey!"

 _ **(Sir ... that)**_

'There's that Mist stuff again, what are they talking about?' Percy thought to himself.

 _ **(Sir ... fall-)**_

For the first time, Percy looked at his best-friend and Latin teacher and wondered, 'Who are you?'

 _ **(The ... bow)**_

"Just out of curiosity, was it an archer's bow?" Rachel asked Chiron, he didn't answer.

 _ **(I ... inside)**_

"Good reflexes." Someone notes.

 _ **(A ... solstice)**_

"What happened on the winter solstice?" Annabeth asks.

 _ **(Mine ... tomorrow)**_

All the students in the room recoil as if they've been shot. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sadie could be heard yelling.

 _ **(Don't ... forever)**_

"Especially if you're a demigod."

 _ **(Finally ... bed)**_

Grover had a hurt expression on his face that nearly broke the gods hearts.

 _ **(I ... inside)**_

The expressions on the gods faces looked priceless and Destiny probably would have taken a picture but she was on a laptop looking at something.

 _ **(For ... lips)**_

The children of the gods were silently planning her death, while Destiny closed her laptop and sat beside Percy, knowing that this would be a difficult part for him to hear.

 _ **(I ... stung)**_

You could tell the Percy listening was feeling the same way.

 _ **(Here ... out)**_

Many of the demigods believed that at times like these Chiron really needed to learn how to give a pep talk.

 _ **(Right ... be-)**_

Destiny, with no small amount of sarcasm, said, "And the award for best pep talker goes to, a tie between Gobber and Chiron!" Making everyone laugh, even if none of them knew who Gobber was.

 _ **(Thanks ... gone)**_

Everyone just shook their heads.

 _ **(On ... nobodies)**_

Destiny locked eyes with Percy and said something that resonated with all the half-bloods. "Percy you are not a nobody, you have a great role to play, even if you can't see it now."

 _ **(They ... fall)**_

"Not to mention helping to pay the rent and the beer that Smelly Gabe guzzles on a daily basis." Percy murmured angrily. Poseidon looked angry as did some others, but the one who looked angriest was Dionysus, the god of wine, the boy was forced to put up with a human who used Dionysus's gifts as so many mortals do nowadays. He almost felt bad for the boy.

 _ **(Oh ... city)**_

Without thinking Destiny said, "And then everything went sour." confusing everyone.

 _ **(During ... Greyhound)**_

"Why are you so nervous Grover?" Percy asked his friend, concerned. "Percy I really don't know, but I hope I'm wrong." Grover replied.

 _ **(Finally ... Kindly Ones)**_

"Oh dude I so hope you're just joking." Grover said looking around nervously.

 _ **(Grover ... dead-line)**_

Everyone leaned closer hoping to get the answers they had wanted since they heard about it.

 _ **(He ... teachers)**_

"What the heck!? You've admitted that she's real!" Percy burst at the book, while also glaring at Grover, saddened by the fact his best friend was lying to him straight out.

 _ **(Grover- ... pink)**_

At this point Percy wasn't even looking at Grover, or his favorite teacher.

 _ **(From ... address)**_

All the demigods looked at each other and instantly knew that was the wrong thing to say. They almost felt bad for the satyr, but then they remembered that he didn't really help the situation.

 _ **(My ... mansion)**_

Grover openly flinched at that part.

 _ **(He ... to)**_

It really did but no one was willing to oppose the harsh comment, the satyr was hurting his best friend, Percy can be a little harsh if he wants to.

 _ **(Grover ... from)**_

Everyone looked nervous, and before Grover could explain, Destiny stepped in. "Percy everything will be revealed in time. Trust me."

 _ **(There ... highway)**_

The gods were getting nervous again, something was about to happen.

 _ **(After ... seen)**_

Everyone got a really bad feeling, they knew those three. Even if to some they were only myths. They were the fates.

 _ **(I ... me)**_

Sally looked like she was about to march up to the gods and smack Poseidon. Luckily Destiny put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

 _ **(I ... twitching)**_

Despite his anger, Percy turned to Grover and asked, "Dude, you ok?" Gover smiled at him and nodded.

 _ **(Grover ... all)**_

Sadie smiled and said, "Actually it is kind of funny." Making Grover just shake his head.

 _ **(The ... breath)**_

So did everyone else in the room.

 _ **(We're ... life)**_

And like that everyone collectively sighed in relief.

 _ **(The ... they)**_

"If you were only so lucky." Destiny mumbled, somewhat bitterly, confusing everyone. But also scaring them enough to not ask about it.

 _ **(His ... time)**_

Annabeth, Luke and Thalia walked up to Grover and said, "Grover, it's not your fault. It never was." He still seemed shaken up by what was being read, but he managed a smile.

 _ **(What ... about)**_

No one had really noticed when Percy had sat even closer to his mom, and when they did no one bothered to say anything because this must really be freaking him out.

 ** _(Let ... me)_**

Somehow Percy knew, as soon as Grover asked, that Percy wouldn't be walking home with Grover.

 _ **(This ... coffin)**_

Before Athena could continue the story Destiny stood up and said, "I know many of you are curious about what will happen next, but we do need food between chapters. So every few chapters or so we'll take a break and eat." Having said that food appeared infront of everyone. Their favorite foods.

After eating and talking over all the stuff said in the last chapter, along with what the third chapter would say, everyone got settled and Athena picked up the book once more.

* * *

So what do you guys think?

Sorry for taking so long to update.

See ya next time!


	6. Chapter 3

_The third chapter! :)_

* * *

 _Last time-_

 _After eating and talking over all the stuff said in the last chapter, along with what the third chapter would say, everyone got settled and Athena picked up the book once more._

 _Now-_

 _ **Chapter 3:**_

Grover blushed when Athena read that and everyone else laughed.

 _ **(Confession ... terminal.)**_

Surprising everyone Percy shouted out, "Called it!" causing a few of the more anxious people laugh at how silly he can be.

 _ **(I ... grade?")**_

Sadie laughed and said, "Saying stuff like that? No wonder he got spooked." Making a few others smile. And for some reason Destiny was back on her computer. The two that knew who she really was, decided it would be best not to question her.

 _ **(Whenever ...**_ _ **dad.)**_

Poseidon smiled smugly and telepathically Athena said, ' _Don't go getting a big head. Remember he said that she'd had a tough life. Meeting you was just a lucky break on her part and a stupid decision on yours.'_ Before Poseidon could respond Athena continued to read.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **kid.)**_

After hearing about his mom, this far Percy knew Smelly Gabe was next. He got ready for his mom to tell him that Gabe wasn't that bad, but Percy knew the truth, he really was.

 _ **(Finally ... shorts.)**_

Rachel paled and said, "That sounds really gross. And if I hadn't had to stand next to him I would disagree." Everyone quickly nodded.

 _ **(Between ...**_ _ **months?)**_

Destiny looked up from her computer and smiled at Percy while laughing. "Please be honest. If he did any of that you'd be even more freaked out by him, and you know it." Percy laughed and nodded silently agreeing. Making everyone else wonder what would happen, and why the human wanted Percy's cash.

 _ **(Gabe ... weight.)**_

"Surprise surprise." Percy muttered.

 _ **(He ...**_ _ **out.)**_

The gods had to hold Poseidon back from killing Gabe on the spot, while Destiny had to hold Sally back from attacking the disgusting creature that had to be called a human.

 _ **("I ...**_ _ **else.)**_

"It does a pretty good job." Destiny said, while lighting an apple pie scented candle. (A.N./ Anyone know if that scent exists?)

 _ **("You ... Eddie?")**_

For this part Destiny had ungagged Gabe. "Of course I'm right." Gabe said, ignoring the glares he received. This time no one stopped Sally from punching him in the face, Destiny and everyone else cheered.

 _ **(Eddie ...**_ _ **lose.")**_

Destiny smirked evilly in Gabe's direction and told Percy, "Don't worry… He most definitely loses." The way she said it made everyone think that he loses a _lot_ more than just a poker game.

 _ **("Your ...**_ _ **beer.)**_

Destiny offered him an air freshener.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **yarn.)**_

This caused a round of laughter, even from the gods.

 _ **(But ... talons.)**_

"You have a very vivid imagination." Destiny complimented Percy. "Um… Thanks?"

 _ **(Then ...**_ _ **Gabe.)**_

"That's a true feat right there! I've only read about him, but even we have a few less than kind words for the jerk." Sadie Kane said, while death glaring at the gagged man. No one disagreed.

 _ **("Oh ...**_ _ **strings,)**_

"Why blue?" Carter asked. "I'll probably explain in a bit." Percy answered.

 _ **(she ...**_ _ **huh?")**_

Sadie stood up, but before she could attack the bound human, Carter pulled her back down by her wrist.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **bad.)**_

"Yikes!" Bianca said. Anything that could make Nancy Bobofit not seem that bad was pretty big itself.

 _ **(Until ...**_ _ **me.)**_

All the known demigods looked at Percy with wide eyes, when Luke said, "Best. Mom. Ever." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

 _ **("I ...**_ _ **money.)**_

Destiny could be heard mumbling about cheap jerks and enough money for beer but not enough for a weekend trip. And the gods could have sworn she said something about turning him to stone. They, wisely, didn't mention it.

 _ **(Gabe ...**_ _ **that?")**_

Destiny slammed her laptop shut, with enough force to destroy a building, and snapped her fingers in Gabe's direction.

Suddenly he wasn't lying tied up on the ground, he was tied up in a soundproof cage with an invisible barrier that kept all of his disgusting scent inside. His was still gagged as well.

"Anyone object to the new arrangement?" Everyone just agreed with her because, suddenly, it was a lot more pleasant in the throne room. Destiny smiled and went back to her laptop.

 _ **("I ...**_ _ **right?")**_

Sadie boldly walked up to Destiny and whispered something in her ear, Destiny smiled and agreed. She snapped her fingers and the cage that held Gabe was now filled with four cats. Angry cats. Sadie smiled and sat back down. Carter made a mental note to ask about that at the end of the chapter.

 _ **("Yes ...**_ _ **week.)**_

That made everyone crack up and it took Athena ten minutes to get everyone calm again.

 _ **(But ...**_ _ **statement.)**_

Sadie punched the air, "No one can beat sarcasm!" while laughing.

 _ **("Yeah ...**_ _ **scratch.")**_

Destiny smirked, and without looking up from the screen she said, "Don't worry it won't have _one little_ scratch." The way she said it gave everyone a strange sense of unease.

 _ **(Like ...**_ _ **out.)**_

This made everyone laugh and for a moment they all forgot that Gabe was a complete and total jerk.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **dad.)**_

All of the girls 'awwed' at that.

 _ **(As ...**_ _ **food.)**_

Sadie could be heard shouting, "Thank you!" making people laugh.

 _ **(See ...**_ _ **baby.")**_

Carter and Sadie knew he was grasping at straws, hoping against hope that his memories weren't a lie. That his father had seen him… cared for him.

The only difference between them and Percy, was that they knew for sure that they at least had a few years with their mother. He didn't have anything.

 _ **("No ...**_ _ **me ...)**_

The Percy in the throne room hung his head low. Everyone knew he was silently crying, but no one wanted to give him the false hopes that people do when you lose someone.

At this point Athena had marked her place in the book, walked over to Poseidon and smacked him upside the head, before doing the same to her father, Zeus.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **said.)**_

Deciding that this was the moment to lift his spirits Annabeth looked at him said, "Of course you're not normal. Normal is way overrated. It's more fun being strange." This made him laugh, along with everyone else.

 _ **("You ... Percy.)**_

Annabeth pumped her fist in the air with a smile.

 _ **(But ... safe.")**_

Luke just shook his head sadly.

 _ **("Safe ... what?")**_

Both Roman and Greek chorused, "EVERYTHING!" Making Percy laugh.

 _ **(She ...**_ _ **hands.)**_

The campers laughed. And Destiny smirked at a thought she had: Percy Jackson, killing snakes since preschool.

 _ **(In ...**_ _ **that.)**_

Annabeth looked at the boy and sadly smiled. 'His fatal flaw, loyalty.'

 _ **("I've ...**_ _ **school?")**_

His mom winced, "Not quite."

 _ **("Not ...**_ _ **before?)**_

Chiron looked straight at Percy and said, "It's a special place that many children like you go so that they can learn to survive." Percy, who was still mad at him, didn't answer.

 _ **("I'm ...**_ _ **dream.)**_

All the demigods winced. Dreams are like instant news you didn't want. And their hardly ever good.

 _ **(It ...**_ _ **No!)**_

Destiny decided now would be a good time to chime in. "So Poseidon is fighting Zeus and some weird voice from the ground is telling them to kill each other! In other news the weather is 58 degrees outside and there is a slight chance for rain in Kansas!" After hearing this everyone laughed. After everyone calmed down Athena started again.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **beach,)**_

"Ya sure about that Percy?"

 _ **(just ...**_ _ **end.)**_

At this point even the most seasoned campers were scared.

 _ **(Then ...**_ _ **me?")**_

"Oh you know, I just had a wild hallucination that I sliced an imaginary Math teacher in half. No big deal." Percy said with fake easy, before laughing at how Sadie jumped for joy at the slicing of Math teachers.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **lightning.)**_

Sally's face mirrored the description in the book, for she was still terrified.

 _ **(She ...**_ _ **hooves.)**_

Destiny jumped up and shouted, "The truth! Finally!" Making a few people laugh.

Then Carter remembered what he wanted to ask Destiny. "Hey Destiny, why did you lock the smelly guy in a cage with cats?" Destiny smirked before answering. "Simple Carter. Your sister pointed out that maybe Gabe was a little comfy and relaxed in his new cage, and suggested that I make sure he isn't relaxed. She offered angry cats. And you'll see that if I ever think that Gabe has been an extra big jerk then the cats will advance a little more." Now if it had been anyone else in the cage, it would have been cruel. Since it was Gabe it was more of a mercy than anything else.

"Any other questions?" Annabeth raised her hand, "What are you doing on your laptop?" Destiny smiled, definitely Athena's child. "I've got some stuff I've gotta finish from where I'm from, and since we won't be leaving anytime soon I decided this would be a good place." And since no one else had anymore questions Athena strated Chapter 4.

* * *

I'm already working on the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 4

I love this series!

* * *

 _Last time-_

 _And since no one else had anymore questions Athena strated Chapter 4._

 _Now:_

 ** _Chapter 4:_**

"Mom, you know how to bullfight?" Percy asked, slightly worried. "No I don't." Was the answer he got.

 _ **(We ...**_ _ **animal.)**_

"Wow. Thanks man." Grover said making a few people laugh.

 _ **(All ...**_ _ **now.")**_

"Doesn't matter? Doesn't matter! You just showed up on his door step and showed him that you have hooves! And now you say it doesn't matter?" Sadie said, completely freaked. Carter tried to calm her down, but he wasn't much of a people person. "Yeah pretty much." Grover said trying to stay calm.

 _ **("It ...**_ _ **down.")**_

Percy looked at him. "I thought you said it didn't matter."

 _ **("You ... matter.")**_

Percy pumped his fist in the air, smiling.

 _ **("Blaa-ha-ha! ...**_ _ **mean?")**_

"Okay I get that I'm some kind of human god hybrid. Fine with that. I get that because of this creatures will try and kill me, no big deal. But people trying to get me to think a near death experience was just a figment of my imagination. No go." Percy said, making the kids laugh.

 _ **(The ... trail.)**_

All laughter vanished instantly. "W-what chasing us?" Percy asked scared.

 _ **("Percy, " ...**_ _ **minions.")**_

Poseidon glared at his brother, if Hades wasn't the lord of the dead, he'd be worried for his health. But he couldn't help but wonder, why was he trying to kill his nephew?

 _ **("Grover!" ...**_ _ **fences.)**_

With a sarcastic grin Clarisse looked at percy and said, "Welcome to paradise, newbie."

 _ **("Where ...**_ _ **you.")**_

Despite the tense air some managed to laugh at how ridiculous they were being.

 _ **("Boys!" ...**_ _ **me.)**_

"Yet despite her best efforts, you're still alive!" Jason said, making everyone laugh, and relieve some of the tension in the air.

 _ **(Then ...**_ _ **time.)**_

"Sounds painful." Ares said while smirking.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **die!)**_

Percy looked over at Grover with some fear and said, "If you die, I'll kill you." Grover knew what Percy meant. They were best friends.

 _ **(Then ... hope.)**_

Everyone smiled, relieved. Then Hazel said something that made the Romans think. "Why are the satyrs so much more helpful than the fauns?" Of course at the moment no one had an answer.

 _ **("Percy, " ...**_ _ **horns.)**_

Some of the campers from both sides knew what that was and were kind of happy that even though he will most likely die, Percy still thought of things like a mortal.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **hill.)**_

Thalia smiled and shouted, "That's me!" confusing everyone who didn't go to Camp-Half Blood.

 _ **("That's ...**_ _ **ocean.)**_

Percy looked at his mother very seriously, more serious than any twelve year old had a right to be, and said, "You are coming with me." She had no answer.

 _ **("No!" ...**_ _ **bull.)**_

It was obvious that what the thing really was, was also being revealed to Percy.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **Grover.")**_

The gods looked at Percy Jackson and one thought passed through all their minds, 'A natural leader.'

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **sharpener.)**_

"Really? A joke. Now?" Frank asked. Percy just shrugged.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **you.")**_

Que the death-glares pointed towards the gods.

 _ **("But ...**_ _ **Oops.)**_

Gabe, locked up in a cage with angry cats, looked outraged and would've threatened Percy if he hadn't been gagged. Percy didn't notice any of this, too busy cheering with everyone else that Gabe's car exploded. Destiny, however, did. She glared at him and suddenly the cats got a signal to advance even closer to the man. The young girl smirked.

 _ **("Percy, " ...**_ _ **But-")**_

His mother was close to tears when she told him, "No buts Percy."

 _ **(Another ...**_ _ **lighter.)**_

"Hey!"

 _ **(The ...**_ _ **grass.)**_

"No. Nononononononononononono." Was the only thing the people around him could make out, as Percy stared at the book with a sense of dread. Destiny sat next to Percy and nodded to Athena to continue.

 _ **(We'd ...**_ _ **Run!")**_

Destiny knew what was going to happen and quickly wrapped her arms around Percy.

 _ **(But ... air.)**_

Percy was now rocking back in forth with all his nerves, Jason had stood up and was pacing. Leo was looking at his hands and fumbling with some wire he had in his pockets. Everyone else was avoiding looking at Percy.

 _ **("Mom!" ...**_ _ **Gone.)**_

A horrible sound tore out of Percy's throat, halfway between a scream and a moan. Then he was crying, Destiny was just looking down while holding the boy. She looked up to see , silently telling her not to get too close, she nodded her head in understanding.

Meanwhile Poseidon was glaring at Hades, and the god of death suddenly _was_ afraid for his health.

Destiny took a deep breath and in a clear, commanding, voice said to everyone, "Okay, this part is a bit difficult to hear but we need to continue."

 _ **("No!" ...**_ _ **jacket.)**_

Everyone was silently cheering him on.

 _ **("**_ _ **Hey!" ...**_ _ **neck.)**_

Percy looked up, surprised at the words he was hearing. How did he do that.

 _ **(How ...**_ _ **forward.)**_

Everyone was cheering him on, he started to feel a bit better, only a bit.

 _ **(Meanwhile, ...**_ _ **snap!)**_

One thought was going through everyone's mind 'Did he really just snap one of the minotaur's horns off?' But they were all too caught up in the story to voice the thought.

 _ **(The ...**_ _ **gone.)**_

Everyone was too shocked to really celebrate.

 _ **(The ... go.)**_

Grover was touched that Percy would be so loyal and save him when he could have just left him inside of the border.

 _ **(The ... be.")**_

Both Percy and Annabeth were blushing at this statement.

 _ **("Silence, ... inside.")**_

The silence was deafening. No one really knew what to say. Eventually The children of the Big Three got up and moved to sit closer to their cousin. Jason looked at the kid they'd been reading about. Even now, he had an air of strength, like he would gladly fight for all of them.

The children of Hades sat closest to him silently comforting him.

This was how they all stayed as Athena began the next chapter.

* * *

I really love this series!

See ya next time!


	8. Chapter 5

If you don't know where you're going any road will get you there. ~ Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland

I own nothing.

On with the story!

* * *

 _Last time:_

 _The children of Hades sat closest to him silently comforting him._

 _This was how they all stayed as Athena began the next chapter._

 _Now:_

Athena started to read but Destiny suddenly stood up, surprising everyone. "I'm really sorry but it's super cramped in here, so I'm going to put a few of you into a sleep like coma until it's time to read your stories. And I'm gonna send some of you back to where you were when I took you." No one had anytime to react as she snapped her fingers and The Kanes, Magnus, and basically everyone from Camp-Half Blood(except for the mane ones) suddenly slumped and vanished. "We can continue now." Everyone was scared to anger her so they started reading.

 ** _Chapter 5:_**

 _ **(I ... food.)**_

Despite the serious events that had just happened, you couldn't help but laugh.

 _ **(I ... again.)**_

Leo smiled and tried to lighten the air, "Sounds like a solid plan to me!" it worked, everyone was smiling and laughing again.

 _ **(I ... spoon.)**_

Luke, who had remembered how Percy had described her at the end of the last chapter smirked, those two were so going to end up together.

 _ **(When ...**_ _ **weeks!")**_

The gods looked at each other worried, something had been stolen and everyone seems to think that this mortal did it.

 _ **("I'm ...**_ _ **gone.)**_

Thalia smirked, "Awe is someone disappointed they don't get to see the pretty girl again." Percy blushed and his cousins laughed.

 _ **(A ...**_ _ **hurt.)**_

Destiny mumbled something about ironic foreshadowing.

 _ **(On ...**_ _ **said.)**_

Percy smiled brightly, "Grover!" and no one could deny that once he started being somewhat happy the mood lifted.

 _ **(Grover ... boy.)**_

Gover took this chance, "Percy I can guarantee you that there is absolutely nothing plain about me, I'm too awesome." Percy laughed.

 _ **(So ...**_ _ **remember?")**_

Percy's eyes went wide, "Two days!?"

 _ **("My ...**_ _ **sunlight.)**_

"Awe thanks!" Thalia said, once again confusing everyone. "Why do you keep saying that?" Jason asked. "Well you see when I got to the camp a lot of monsters were attacking and I got really hurt and so Zeus turned me into a pine tree." She explained.

 _ **(My ...**_ _ **it.)**_

"I'm delusional?" Percy said, causing the few still left around him to laugh.

 _ **(Grover ...**_ _ **Gabe?)**_

Poseidon glared at the book, if nothing else his son would live with him at his palace. Also he would have to kill the annoying mortal, he could probably get his brothers in on it as well.

 _ **(No. ... something.)**_

Ares laughed, "I like you kid! You got spunk."

 _ **(Grover ...**_ _ **juice.)**_

Everyone laughed, "Don't worry everyone expects apple juice when the first taste it." Luke said as he laughed, making Percy feel a little bit better.

 _ **(It ...**_ _ **taste.")**_

Grover got a little nervous look in his eye, "No thanks I really don't want to burn up!"

 _ **(His ...**_ _ **wings.)**_

When Rachel heard the description she thought, 'I wanna go there.'

 _ **(Down ...**_ _ **park.)**_

Everyone laughed at the description of Mr. D

 _ **(He ... step-father.)**_

Said human looked outraged, and started trying to talk through the gag, making a lot of racket. You didn't need to understand him to know that he was cursing Percy, and Mr.D out. Destiny glared and the cats started getting even closer.

 _ **("That's ... Chiron...")**_

"Just a camper, huh." Annabeth said as she gave him the stink eye.

 _ **(He ...**_ _ **B.)**_

Everyone laughed, because that sounded exactly like something Chiron would do.

 _ **("Ah, ...**_ _ **you.")**_

Sarcastically Nico said, "Well he seems friendly!"

 _ **("Uh, ... satyr.)**_

There was a lot of laughter.

 _ **("Annabeth ...**_ _ **sleep.")**_

Some tried to hold in their laughter, others just let loose.

 _ **(Then ...**_ _ **Chiron.")**_

"Pseudo-what?" Leo asked. "A fake name, used as a disguise." Annabeth explained to him.

 _ **("Okay. ...**_ _ **absence.")**_

"Why do I get the feeling that 'convinced' is really another way of saying threatened?" Frank asked.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **less.)**_

"Eh. No one really likes him, and he doesn't really like us. You'll get used to it." Luke said, making Percy smile.

 _ **("Well, ...**_ _ **not?")**_

Percy glared at the director, "Are you saying my mother was stupid?" His voice was deadly calm, and Grover mentally took back the statement that Ares glare was worse, Percy's was downright terrifying. The gods themselves were a little unnerved by the glare.

 _ **("What?" ...**_ _ **sufficient.")**_

Destiny laughed to herself, "I don't think any of the seven ever actually got to watch the orientation film."

 _ **("Orientation ...**_ _ **mournfully.)**_

Percy laughed, "Definitely a goat."

 _ **("Wait, ...**_ _ **day.)**_

"Is there anything I can do here that isn't followed by thunder?" Percy asked.

 _ **("Young ...**_ _ **him.)**_

The gods looked at each other, impressed. ' _He's got more control that we thought.'_ Athena said to her family.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **wine.)**_

Zeus glared at his son, "You're restricted from wine." Dionysus just shrugged and said, "Old habits die hard."

 _ **(My ...**_ _ **unfair.")**_

"Yes. Unfair to the campers who now have to deal with him." Percy said the the ones around him.

 _ **(Mr. D ...**_ _ **I?")**_

"It's gettin real deep now." Leo joked.

 _ **(Chiron ...**_ _ **chocolate.")**_

Suddenly the air smelled of chocolate. Everyone turned to Destiny who was drinking what looked to be some type of hot coco. "What? I'm thirsty."

"What is it?" Percy asked. "It's my way of making a cappuccino. I hate the taste of black coffee so I mix in a packet of hot coco, along with some type of creamer." Destiny said as she took another sip. Then she noticed how everyone looked like they wanted some so, she snapped her fingers and everyone got a cappuccino.

 _ **(And ...**_ _ **campers.")**_

Athena finished the chapter, "Someone else read for a little bit, I'm tired." And so the book got handed to Hazel.

She cleared her throat and began.

* * *

Next chapter will hopefully be up soon!

I actually do make my cappuccinos that way. I love the taste!

Sorry for getting rid of a lot of them but I decided that I wanted to limit it to the main characters and other important people.


	9. Chapter 6

I have no idea how I'm gonna get through this in one try, this chapter has always been awkward for me, but I'm gonna do it!

I own nothing in the story! That right, unfortunately, goes to Rick Riordan.

ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

 _Last time:_

 _Athena finished the chapter, "Someone else read for a little bit, I'm tired." And so the book got handed to Hazel._

 _She cleared her throat and began._

 _Now:_

 _ **Chapter 6:**_

Everyone tried to hold in their laughter, they really did, but that title was just too funny.

 _ **(Once ... front.)**_

"No one can blame you for that one." Nico said.

 _ **(We ...**_ _ **something.)**_

The remaining campers looked at him curiously, "Can you do a flip?" Percy looked at them with a blank expression, "No."

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **thing.")**_

Apollo and Hermes looked impressed, "Half-truths, that's how you do it!"

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **that!")**_

"Twice!" Luke said to help.

 _ **("I ...**_ _ **twenty-eight.")**_

The half-bloods paused and looked at the satyr, he stared back.

 _ **("What! ...**_ _ **years.")**_

Everyone looked horrified.

 _ **("That's ...**_ _ **mind.)**_

Hades groaned and thought, ' _Great another hero's gonna sneak into my palace and try and retrieve the dead.'_

 _ **("Chiron ...**_ _ **hall.")**_

"Anyone else love how quickly he changes the subject? It's kinda like saying: I just ran over your dog. Here's a coupon for a free sundae!" Leo said, making the others laugh.

 _ **(Chiron ...**_ _ **asked.)**_

"Good question."

 _ **(Chiron ...**_ _ **stick.)**_

"I'm surprised you noticed. Most of the campers just ignore me and never even notice that I'm there." A kind voice spoke out from the center of the room. The gods smiled: Hestia.

 _ **(The ...**_ _ **guessed.)**_

"Wow. You got that fast." Annabeth said.

 _ **("Correct, ...**_ _ **two.")**_

"Well no one _supposed_ to stay in one or two." Hera said with a pointed look at her husband.

 _ **(Okay. ...**_ _ **that!")**_

Some campers laughed at how Chiron couldn't stop Percy from doing what he wanted.

 _ **(Before ...**_ _ **fists.)**_

"Something wrong with the paint job, punk?" Ares said glaring at Percy, who quickly shook his head.

 _ **(The ...**_ _ **again.)**_

"That'll happen a lot." Annabeth said.

 _ **("Oh, ...**_ _ **eleven.)**_

Leo looked horrified, "Why would you read a book willingly? Especially when there are so many cooler things to be doing." Annabeth just looked at him. "I'm a daughter of Athena."

 _ **(When ...**_ _ **caduceus.)**_

The gods looked impressed. The boy obviously didn't study much, so it was impressive that he knew what it was called, or even what it was associated with, by sight alone.

 _ **(Inside, ...**_ _ **there.")**_

"Yes now everyone that specific spot on the floor is for Percy alone. Don't touch it." Jason said, in the same voice preschool teachers use on their students, making everyone laugh.

 _ **(The ...**_ _ **thieves.)**_

"Smart move."

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **me.)**_

Suddenly there was a loud squeal. Everyone turned to Aphrodite but she looked just as startled as they did. Then they turned to Destiny, who was smiling like crazy. "Percabeth! It's the beginning of Percabeth!" No one really got what that meant so the just shrugged it off.

 _ **(When ...**_ _ **guy-")**_

All of the gods looked shocked, "Well this is a first. A hero that doesn't have an ego!" They would have gone into further discussion about it if Hazel hadn't cleared her throat. Loudly, "Ahem! If you don't mind I'd like to get back to the story now." And without waiting for a response she continued.

 _ **("Don't ...**_ _ **Minotaur!)**_

Jason looked confused, "Wait. There's a difference?" Making everyone laugh.

 _ **(What ...**_ _ **So...")**_

The gods opened a small mental chat, 'This boy is remarkable. He doesn't get many good grades, but he knows the myths.' Hades said in a, somewhat, impressed voice.

 _ **("Monsters ... die.")**_

Piper turned to Annabeth, "That makes absolutely no sense."

 _ **("Oh, ...**_ _ **are.")**_

Frank and Leo shouted in sync, "I knew it!"

 _ **("You ...**_ _ **half- blood.")**_

"So basically you're saying that you fed me food that could've killed me, without knowing what would happen." Percy said, freaking out a little.

 _ **(A ...**_ _ **rep.)**_

Apollo turned to Hermes and said, "Twenty gold drachma says that he gets beat to a pulp." Hermes thought about it for a second, then remembered the title of the chapter. He smiled and said, "You're on!" and they shook on it.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **johns.)**_

Everyone cracked up laughing.

 _ **(Clarisse's ...**_ _ **toilets.)**_

Even more laughing.

 _ **(I ...**_ _ **away.)**_

Hermes smirked, turned to Apollo and mouthed "Pay up." Apollo grumbled but handed over the money.

 _ **(As ...**_ _ **mouth.")**_

The campers that had been at camp all had one thought running through their heads, 'Great she's gonna kill him.'

 _ **(Her ...**_ _ **flag.")**_

"And that's the end of that chapter!" Hazel said, as she tossed the book to Luke, who took it reluctantly.

* * *

Chapter 8 done!

Two chapters in two days!

And I want your opinion. Should I bring in the these characters but like from after the second giant war? I've dabbled with the idea but I don't know if I should. Comment if you want to see that!


	10. New People!

This chapter will not have a chapter in it.

In this chapter a few new/old friends will enter.

On with the story!

* * *

 _Last time: "And that's the end of that chapter!" Hazel said, as she tossed the book to Luke, who took it reluctantly._

 _Now:_

Before Luke could begin Destiny stood up and said, "It's been a long day and you guys are probably tired. We can continue this story tomorrow morning." No one was disagreeing with her, they were all tired. Suddenly two doors appeared, one had the obvious boy's sign on it, while the other had the girl's sign. They all went into their respective rooms, and pretty much crashed the moment their heads hit the pillows.

The next morning everyone was well rested and ready to read more of the, so far entertaining book. But before they could even pick up the book there was bright flash and standing in the middle of the room stood eleven teenagers ranging from thirteen to eighteen. Destiny didn't seemed surprised at all to see them there. In fact she greeted them!

"Hello demigods and Oracle! You are all here to read a series of books concerning Percy Jackson! Please introduce yourselves, but only your names, not the full titles. We can do that at a later time."

They all seemed wary, but introduced themselves none-the-less.

A tough looking girl, with a spear strapped to her back stepped forward first. " I am Clarisse La Rue." The younger version of her was surprised.

The boy that went next looked pale and sullen, like he would melt into the shadows at any moment, "My name is Nico Di Angelo." The young Nico, and Bianca was kinda scared of his future self. The older Nico, however was shocked to see his big sister. He decided not to tell them what would happen. Let them have this time.

Next was a mortal girl, with red curly hair and green eyes, the gods were sure she wasn't a demigod. But she had an aura of power that felt familiar to them somehow. "Hi! I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

After her went a girl that Artemis knew immediately was one of her hunters. "My name is Thalia Grace." The younger version of Thalia was pleased with how it worked out.

The last seven decided to save some time and just have one person introduce them all, they chose the elf-like latino boy. "Well let's start this off! Starting with the ladies we have Piper Mclean, Hazel Levesque, and Annabeth Chase! As for the rest of us we are Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Percy Jackson and of course me. Leo Valdez!"

Artemis smirked, Zeus's mouth dropped, Hades and Poseidon laughed, Aphrodite squealed, Hera looked confused, Apollo and Hermes exchanged money, Mr. D groaned, Ares wanted a fight, Hephaestus was tinkering with a new invention, Demeter was eating whole wheat cereal, and Hestia was getting chairs and such ready. All of the kids and future heroes were just looking over everything and laughing.

After a while Destiny stood up, "QUIET!" Instant silence. "Thank you. As fun as this was, we need to continue with the story. So sit down and get comfy." Destiny went back to her beanbag.

Once everyone was situated Luke picked up the book and began.

* * *

Just so we can get it straightened out here is the sitting order of the demigods and such not the gods.

Percy/Annabeth/Nico Piper/Jason/Frank/Hazel Leo/Clarisse/Thalia/Luke

Y Percy/Y Jason/ Y Leo/ Y Nico Bianca/Y Annabeth/Y Hazel/ Y Thalia

Y Clarisse/Y Piper/ Y Frank/ Grover

So that's the seating order, it'll probably change as we get farther into the story.

See ya!


	11. Chapter 7

Chapter 7!

How do you think The future demigods will react when they find out that Luke is there?

This is the new way I'm gonna be writing the rest of the chapters. If you have a problem with it PM me.

Anyway… ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

 _Last time: After a while Destiny stood up, "QUIET!" Instant silence. "Thank you. As fun as this was, we need to continue with the story. So sit down and get comfy." Destiny went back to her beanbag._

 _Once everyone was situated Luke picked up the book and began._

 _Now:_

 _ **7 MY DINNER GOES UP IN SMOKE**_

The older Percy, Annabeth and Thalia were all shocked to hear Luke's voice, as he read the story.

 _ **Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**_

Everyone from the future just looked at Percy and were thinking, ' _How in Hades did she ever forgive him for that?!'_ Percy just blushed, at being reminded of that first day.

 _ **She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts- and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**_

All of the younger kids looked terrified, but the older Leo was just smiling like that was his favorite part of the whole camp.

 _ **Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**_

 _ **"I've got training to do, " Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall. "**_

 _ **"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets. "**_

 _ **"Whatever. "**_

 _ **"It wasn't my fault. "**_

Luke couldn't be sure but he could have sworn that he heard the older Annabeth mumble something like, "Whatever you say Seaweed brain."

 _ **She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**_

Everyone snickered.

 _ **"You need to talk to the Oracle, " Annabeth said.**_

 _ **"Who?"**_

The older Rachel shouted, "ME!" while smiling, making everyone laugh.

 _ **"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron. "**_

 _ **I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**_

 _ **I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**_

 _ **I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**_

 _ **"Don't encourage them, " Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts. "**_

Luke couldn't help it. He laughed. "Are you jealous Annabeth?" Both Annabeth's blushed and shouted at him, "I am not jealous!" Causing everyone else to laugh.

 _ **"Naiads, " I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now. "**_

 _ **Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us. "**_

 _ **"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**_

 _ **"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human. "**_

 _ **"Half-human and half-what?"**_

 _ **"I think you know. "**_

 _ **I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**_

 _ **"God, " I said. "Half-god. "**_

 _ **Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians. "**_

 _ **"That's ... Crazy. "**_

 _ **"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**_

The gods might have been offended, but they were too wrapped up in the story to really care.

 _ **"But those are just-" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth.**_

All ones from the future except Percy said, "You won't be a myth. No you'll be a legend!" Confusing everyone else.

 _ **"But if all the kids here are half-gods-"**_

 _ **"Demigods, " Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods. "**_

 _ **"Then who's your dad?"**_

Both Thalia's and Luke winced.

 _ **Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**_

 _ **"My dad is a professor at West Point, " she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history. "**_

 _ **"He's human. "**_

 _ **"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**_

 _ **"Who's your mom, then?"**_

 _ **"Cabin six. "**_

Percy smirked, "Wise girl, it's my first day awake there. You can't possibly think I'll know what god goes with which cabin." Annabeth just laughed. This just proved Luke's theory that at some point in the future they would become a couple.

 _ **"Meaning?"**_

 _ **Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle. "**_

 _ **Okay, I thought. Why not?**_

 _ **"And my dad?"**_

 _ **"Undetermined, " Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows. "**_

 _ **"Except my mother. She knew. "**_

 _ **"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities. "**_

 _ **"My dad would have. He loved her. "**_

 _ **Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.**_

 _ **"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**_

Many of the younger campers looked away, Leo, and Piper looked confused and asked Percy, "Aren't all the gods supposed to claim their children by the time their 13?" Percy looked rather uncomfortable, "Yes. They are. But this happened before they made that agreement. So many campers just got ignored, or were stuck in the Hermes cabin. This was also before there were cabins for many of the gods." He explained to them, and they understood why he looked so uncomfortable, it's hard to speak ill of the gods when they're right in front of you and can hear you.

 _ **Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us. "**_

 _ **I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**_

Many gods looked away at this.

 _ **"So I'm stuck here, " I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**_

 _ **"It depends, " Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force.**_

"Hey!

 _ **The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that. "**_

 _ **"So monsters can't get in here?"**_

 _ **Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside. "**_

 _ **"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**_

 _ **"Practice fights. Practical jokes. "**_

 _ **"Practical jokes?"**_

 _ **"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm. "**_

 _ **"So ... You're a year-rounder?"**_

 _ **Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of differ-ent colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**_

 _ **"I've been here since I was seven, " she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college. "**_

 _ **"Why did you come so young?"**_

 _ **She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business. "**_

 _ **"Oh. " I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**_

 _ **"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ... "**_

 _ **"Unless?"**_

 _ **"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ... "**_

Leo looked interested, what happened on the last quest?

 _ **Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**_

 _ **"Back in the sick room, " I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff-"**_

 _ **"Ambrosia. "**_

 _ **"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice. "**_

 _ **Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"**_

 _ **"Well... No. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**_

 _ **She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal. "**_

 _ **"You've been to Olympus?"**_

 _ **"Some of us year-rounders-Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others-we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council. "**_

 _ **"But... How did you get there?"**_

 _ **"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor. " She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?" "Oh, sure. " As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**_

Many of the kids and teenagers were nodding like that was the wisest thing they had ever heard.

 _ **"Right after we visited, " Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean- Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something. "**_

 _ **I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**_

 _ **"I've got to get a quest, " Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem ... "**_

 _ **I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**_

"I was not drawing a battle plan!" Annabeth said as she laughed.

 _ **Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**_

 _ **The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**_

 _ **"Found you a sleeping bag, " he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store. "**_

 _ **I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**_

"Percy if it's a Hermes kid they never joke about stealing." Leo said to the younger Percy, who rolled his eyes the same time the older Percy did.

 _ **I said, "Thanks. "**_

 _ **"No prob. " Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**_

 _ **"I don't belong here, " I said. "I don't even believe in gods. "**_

 _ **"Yeah, " he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier. "**_

 _ **The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**_

 _ **"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**_

 _ **He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes. "**_

 _ **"The wing-footed messenger guy. "**_

 _ **"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors. "**_

 _ **I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**_

 _ **"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**_

 _ **"Once. "**_

 _ **I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had any-thing to do with how he got his scar.**_

Luke winced, and dreaded the chapter when the visions Destiny showed him would be revealed.

 _ **Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other. "**_

 _ **He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him-even if he was a counselor-should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**_

 _ **I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... Twice, she said I might be 'the one. ' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**_

 _ **Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies. "**_

Many of the people from the future mumbled in agreement.

 _ **"What do you mean?"**_

 _ **His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... Somebody special came to the camp. "**_

 _ **"Somebody special?"**_

 _ **"Don't worry about it, kid, " Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime. "**_

 _ **The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**_

 _ **Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**_

 _ **The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**_

 _ **We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods- and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**_

 _ **In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**_

The Romans from the future looked surprised that the camp had once been so small.

 _ **At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**_

 _ **I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**_

 _ **Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey- blond hair.**_

 _ **Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**_

 _ **Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**_

 _ **Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**_

 _ **Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want-nonalcoholic, of course. "**_

 _ **I said, "Cherry Coke. "**_

 _ **The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**_

 _ **Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke. "**_

Many of the Seven groaned at the mention of more blue food for Percy.

 _ **The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**_

 _ **I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**_

 _ **I drank a toast to my mother.**_

 _ **She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**_

 _ **"Here you go, Percy, " Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**_

 _ **I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**_

 _ **"Come on, " Luke told me.**_

 _ **As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**_

 _ **Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell. "**_

 _ **"You're kidding. "**_

 _ **His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food. Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes. "**_

Percy and Annabeth suddenly got really pale, as if remembering a terrifying memory. Nico sensed this and turned to them, with a somewhat panicked look. "Don't think about it! Think about anything else just don't think of that!" Everyone watched with baited breath as color slowly returned to their faces and they returned to normal.

 _ **I was next.**_

 _ **I wished I knew what god's name to say.**_

 _ **Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**_

 _ **I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**_

 _ **When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**_

 _ **It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**_

 _ **When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention. Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels. "**_

"Mr.D so nice and welcoming!" Leo said sarcastically. Making everyone laugh.

 _ **A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**_

 _ **"Personally, " Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson. "**_

 _ **Chiron murmured something.**_

 _ **"Er, Percy Jackson, " Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on. "**_

 _ **Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing- along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**_

 _ **Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**_

 _ **My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**_

 _ **When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**_

 _ **That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**_

 _ **I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**_

Luke took a shaky breath and said, "Who wants to read next?"

Clarisse had a good idea at what the next chapter would be so she grabbed the book from Luke's hands with only a slight glare in his direction.

'So everyone from the future knows what I did.' Luke thought sadly.

Clarisse cleared her throat and began.

* * *

I think after I put the chapter where Percy leaves for his quest I'm gonna put one where everyone from the future and Luke kind of talk about what happens.

See ya next chapter!


	12. Chapter 8

Also because I have past and present in the story now the younger ones will be in bold and the futures will be normal. I got the idea from FMPtrumpets on , hope you don't mind.

But anyways let's get to the story!

* * *

 _Last Time:_ _Clarisse had a good idea at what the next chapter would be so she grabbed the book from Luke's hands with only a slight glare in his direction._

 _'So everyone from the future knows what I did.' Luke thought sadly._

 _Clarisse cleared her throat and began._

 _Now-_

 _ **8 WE CAPTURE A FLAG**_

 _ **The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**_

 _ **Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**_

 _ **The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to de-snag a stray arrow out of his tail.**_

Everyone winced, how do you shoot someone's tail but not them?!

 _ **Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**_

Everyone laughed at the way he put it.

 _ **And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**_

 _ **"There's more where that came from, punk, " she'd mumble in my ear.**_

Clarisse laughed as she remembered those matches.

 _ **The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**_

 _ **I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or-gods forbid- Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**_

 _ **Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**_

 _ **I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in awhile, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, who-ever he was, make a phone appear?**_

 _ **Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Every-body from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**_

 _ **We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**_

 _ **The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**_

 _ **We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**_

 _ **"Good luck, " one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years. "**_

 _ **"Maybe he'll go easy on me, " I said.**_

 _ **The camper snorted.**_

As did everyone that had ever known Luke.

 _ **Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy, " he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!**_

 _ **By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**_

Leo looked at Annabeth and asked, "Does that count as cheating?" Annabeth thought about it for a moment then said, "I don't think so. He didn't know his godly parent at the time so it's not his fault." Leo and Frank nodded agreeing.

 _ **Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward. "Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo. "**_

 _ **Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**_

 _ **The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**_

 _ **"This is difficult, " he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique. "**_

 _Clarisse_ couldn't help but say, "Luke this is the Hermes cabin you're talking to. Do you really think that they won't laugh?" To which _Luke_ just shrugs.

 _ **He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**_

 _ **"Now in real time, " he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon.**_

Apollo and Hermes once again bet on who they thought would use the move first, Hermes bet on Luke, while Apollo bet on Percy. Somehow Artemis heard their bett and added her two cents, "I bet that the younger boy will win." Apollo looked at his sister with admiration,it had been a long time since he had convinced her to join a bet. "So the price is now 30 gold drachma, agreed?" Hermes said, and the twins nodded.

 _ **"We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?" I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it eas-ily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**_

 _ **The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**_

 _ **I tried the disarming maneuver.**_

 _ **My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**_

 _ **Clang.**_

 _ **Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**_

The godly twins looked at their half-brother and smirked as he mumbled something about going bankrupt by the time the book was over, but handed them 30 drachma each.

 _ **The other campers were silent. I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry. "**_

 _ **For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**_

 _ **"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**_

 _ **I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**_

 _ **This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**_

 _ **After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**_

 _ **Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe, " he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... . "**_

 _ **Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, rest-ing from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me.**_

Leo laughed as he said, "What are you talking about? The lava is easy to get past!" Percy rolled his eyes and said, "It doesn't count if you're fireproof." _Leo_ gasped, he couldn't believe that he would actually use tell someone about that.

 _ **My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**_

 _ **We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**_

 _ **His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**_

 _ **"Fine, " he said. "Just great. "**_

 _ **"So your career's still on track?"**_

 _ **He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**_

 _ **"Well... No. " I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... And that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**_

 _ **Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete. "**_

 _ **My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**_

 _ **"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... And even if you did, why would you want me along?"**_

 _ **"Of course I'd want you along!"**_

 _ **Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill. "**_

 _ **I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**_

 _ **"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis, " he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad. "**_

"That. And it's a good place for my Hunter's when we occasionally visit the camp."

 _ **"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**_

 _ **Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's, " he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job.**_

"Hey!" Zeus said, making everyone crack up laughing.

 _ **When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos. "**_

 _ **"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades. "**_

 _ **"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what. "**_

 _ **"Zeus got the sky, " I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld. " "Uh-huh. "**_

 _ **"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here. "**_

 _ **"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ... " Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that. "**_

Nico and Hazel pretended to be offended, causing their friends to laugh.

 _ **"But Zeus and Poseidon-they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**_

 _ **Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx. "**_

"And yet somehow, Hades was the only one to actually keep that oath." Percy said.

 _ **Thunder boomed.**_

 _ **I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make. "**_

 _ **Grover nodded.**_

 _ **"And the brothers kept their word-no kids?"**_

 _ **Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo-he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . Well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter. "**_

Thalia shrugged, her fate wasn't to bad.

 _ **"But that isn't fair. ' It wasn't the little girl's fault. "**_

 _ **Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to tor-ment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill. "**_

 _ **He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill. "**_

 _ **I stared at the pine in the distance.**_

 _ **The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**_

Destiny smiled sadly at the Percy's, which let them know that nothing they could've done, short of staying with Gabe which wasn't an option, would've saved her.

 _ **"Grover, " I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**_

 _ **"Sometimes, " he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini. "**_

 _ **"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**_

 _ **"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking-"**_

 _ **"No, " I lied. "I was just wondering. So ... A satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**_

 _ **Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems. " "And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special. "**_

 _ **Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were-you know-you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**_

Leo shuddered, "Please don't mention that particular goddess." Hazel remembered their brief meeting with her and agreed.

 _ **I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**_

 _ **That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**_

 _ **At last, it was time for capture the flag.**_

Many of the older future campers were excited, they wanted to see Percy get pummeled. Bets were made, money pooled, this time both gods and demigods got in on it.

Except for the ones that were there,they let their younger selves do that. Many were surprised to see that _Percy_ had bet that he would get creamed. Neither of them would say why though.

 _ **When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**_

 _ **Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**_

 _ **I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**_

 _ **"Yeah. "**_

 _ **"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**_

 _ **"Not always, " he said. "But often. "**_

 _ **"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do- repaint the flag?"**_

 _ **He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one. "**_

 _ **"Whose side are we on?"**_

 _ **He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.**_

Annabeth looked sad and whispered in Percy's ear, "You just love foreshadowing, don't you?" Percy just smirked.

 _ **"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help. "**_

 _ **The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities-in order to win support.**_

 _ **Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.**_

Piper could be seen glaring holes in Percy's head.

 _ **Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**_

Percy smiled and said, "But now I know that some of them have a kinder side. They're like family to me, even if some of them stubbornly insist on calling me 'Prissy'." Many gods smiled at that.

 _ **Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**_

 _ **"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**_

 _ **He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**_

 _ **"Whoa, " I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**_

 _ **Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol. "**_

 _ **My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**_

 _ **Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**_

 _ **We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**_

 _ **I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey. "**_

 _ **She kept marching.**_

 _ **"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**_

 _ **Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**_

Percy pretended to pout, making everyone else laugh. _Percy_ looked at _Annabeth_ and wondered 'What happens that me and this girl that let us become that comfortable with each other?'

 _ **"Just watch Clarisse's spear, " she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?" "Border patrol, whatever that means. "**_

 _ **"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan. "**_

 _ **She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**_

 _ **"Okay, " I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team. "**_

 _ **It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**_

 _ **Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot.**_

Clarisse laughed, "You did look like an idiot Jackson, it made what happens next so much easier!" Everyone was confused, and Poseidon was worried that something bad would happen.

 _ **The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**_

 _ **There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**_

 _ **Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**_

 _ **Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**_

The seven looked at him and thought, 'He just totally jinxed himself.' However only Leo and Frank said it out loud.

 _ **Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**_

 _ **I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**_

 _ **Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**_

 _ **On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**_

 _ **"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**_

Ares smirked, revenge was sweet.

 _ **Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords-not that that made me feel any better.**_

 _ **They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**_

"Three guesses which one he does." Leo shouted, making everyone laugh.

 _ **I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**_

 _ **Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**_

 _ **Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**_

 _ **They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**_

 _ **"Give him a haircut, " Clarisse said. "Grab his hair. "**_

 _ **I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**_

 _ **"Oh, wow, " Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared. "**_

 _ **"The flag is that way, " I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**_

 _ **"Yeah, " one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid. "**_

 _ **"You do that without my help, " I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**_

As one the entire group shouted, "YA THINK!"

 _ **Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabin mates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**_

 _ **Seeing my own blood made me dizzy-warm and cold at the same time.**_

 _ **"No maiming, " I managed to say.**_

 _ **"Oops, " the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege.**_

Athena looked outraged, "That's the punishment?! No desert!? Dionysus you have a whole lot of explaining to do!" Dionysus was afraid that she would attack him.

 _ **He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**_

Annabeth looked at Percy and said in a no nonsense tone, "You are never allowed to give those to Leo or any one from the Hermes cabin." Percy nodded his head, terrified at the very thought of any of them getting their hands on those jelly beans.

 _ **Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**_

 _ **Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**_

 _ **"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**_

Nico laughed, "Sorry, you've got the wrong demigod for that." the other children of the big three laughed to.

 _ **She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**_

 _ **Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**_

 _ **"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick. "**_

 _ **They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**_

 _ **The game was over. We'd won.**_

 _ **I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero. "**_

Everyone jumped, when had she gotten there!?

 _ **I looked, but she wasn't there.**_

 _ **"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**_

 _ **I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up, " I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out. "**_

 _ **Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan. " "I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ... " She shrugged. "You didn't need help. "**_

 _ **Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**_

 _ **"Sword cut, " I said. "What do you think?"**_

 _ **"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it. "**_

 _ **The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**_

 _ **"I-I don't get it, " I said.**_

 _ **Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy. "**_

 _ **"What-"**_

 _ **"Just do it. "**_

 _ **"I-I don't get it, " I said. I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**_

 _ **"Oh, Styx, " she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus... . "**_

"Why is the first god you think of me?!" Zeus whined, making everyone laugh so hard he never got an answer.

 _ **Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**_

 _ **The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**_

 _ **Annabeth drew her sword.**_

 _ **There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**_

 _ **It was looking straight at me. Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**_

 _ **She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her-an enormous shadow with teeth-and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**_

 _ **By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**_

 _ **Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**_

 _ **"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... They're not supposed to ... "**_

Poseidon was glaring at Hades, who was trying to hide from his brother's glare.

 _ **"Someone summoned it, " Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp. " Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**_

 _ **Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**_

 _Percy_ looked at Clarisse and said, "Yes I summoned a hellhound to attack me." The sarcasm was thick in his voice

 _ **"Be quiet, child, " Chiron told her.**_

 _ **We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**_

 _ **"You're wounded, " Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water. "**_

 _ **"I'm okay. "**_

 _ **"No, you're not, " she said. "Chiron, watch this. "**_

 _ **I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**_

 _ **Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped. "Look, I-I don't know why, " I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry... "**_

 _ **But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**_

 _ **"Percy, " Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ... "**_

 _ **By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**_

"Well it's about time!" one of the gods said.

 _ **"Your father, " Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good. "**_

 _ **"It is determined, " Chiron announced.**_

 _ **All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**_

 _ **"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**_

 _ **"Poseidon, " said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God. "**_

"That's the end of the chapter." Clarisse said as she closed the book.

Everyone took a small break to determine the winners, and get the money.

After that was over Clarisse handed the book to Poseidon.

* * *

That is the eighth chapter completed!

See ya next chapter!


	13. Chapter 9

There have been requests for more Percabeth…

Rhyming at the beginning of a chapter, *sigh* this is what I get for being a child of Apollo.

Anyways, I'll try my best for Percabeth, but I can't guarantee anything.

Anyway! Here's chapter 9! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

 _Last time: "That's the end of the chapter." Clarisse said as she closed the book._

 _Everyone took a small break to determine the winners, and get the money._

 _After that was over Clarisse handed the book to poseidon._

Now:

 _ **9 I AM OFFERED A QUEST**_

 _ **The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.**_

 _ **I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.**_

"Sounds lonely…" _Hazel_ said, thinking back on her own life.

 _ **And I was absolutely miserable.**_

 _ **Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid- or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood-I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.**_

The gods winced, the way he put it makes it sound more like a curse than an honor. For a moment Poseidon, Zeus and Hades felt a twinge of sorrow for all of their kids. No wonder they stayed so close together.

 _ **Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.**_

 _ **The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.**_

 _ **"You're going to need all the training you can get, " he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions. "**_

 _Percy_ winced, at least one camper was still acting normal. But he couldn't help but wonder why he was getting angry vibes from his older self.

 _ **Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.**_

 _ **After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan ... "**_

 _ **Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.**_

 _ **I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.**_

 _ **BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER**_

 _ **FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**_

 _ **BY EILEEN SMYTHE**_

 _ **Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**_

 _ **Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.**_

 _ **Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**_

 _ **Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**_

 _ **The phone number was circled in black marker.**_

From the back of the room everyone heard an affirmative grunt, and all heads swiveled in that direction. "What the heck was that?" Percy asked.

Destiny perked up, "I completely forgot! With all of you arriving, the sorry excuse of a human I'd brought here at the beginning of the story was still here!" She giggled, and for some reason everyone in the room backed away from her in fright.

Then she snapped her fingers, and standing in front of them was none other than Smelly Gabe. Instantly the ones that had never met him but had heard the stories from Percy knew who he was, when Percy aimed riptide at him.

"Why is he here?" Percy demanded, still considering killing him. "Well at first I thought it would be funny to make him hear exactly how he'd die, but now he will make a much more use full punching bag. I've even put a special spell on him that will allow any of you to attack him with whatever you want and it won't kill him." Destiny said while grinning wickedly.

Instantly Annabeth and _Annabeth_ threw punches at him, and then sat down, while the others glared at him and planned to attack him at later points in time throughout the story.

 _ **I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.**_

 _ **"Lights out, " I told myself miserably. That night, I had my worst dream yet.**_

Leo turned to Percy and said, "That's not exactly reassuring dude." Percy just smirked at him.

 _ **I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.**_

 _ **About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**_

 _ **I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.**_

 _ **Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.**_

Everyone tried not to laugh laugh at Percy describing two of the most powerful gods as kindergartners, most failed when they saw the gods faces.

 _ **The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.**_

 _ **I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!**_

 _ **The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.**_

 _ **Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!**_

 _ **The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.**_

 _ **I woke up, sure I was falling.**_

 _ **I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.**_

 _ **I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.**_

 _ **"Come in?" Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you. "**_

 _ **"Why?"**_

 _ **"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you. "**_

Percy laughed, "No Grover you had it right the first time. He wanted to kill me." This concerned _Percy_ , and Poseidon, who glared at Dionysus, causing Percy to explain to both of them in hushed whispers that nothing bad had happened.

 _ **Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.**_

 _ **For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.**_

Thalia laughs, "Percy that doesn't happen till your third year!" This freaks everyone out that hadn't been there, including _Percy_. But Percy just laughs so they assume nothing came of it.

 _ **Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.**_

 _ **"No, " he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to. " I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"**_

 _ **He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does. "**_

 _ **I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.**_

 _ **But this storm ... This one was huge.**_

All the children of Zeus, demigod or god, all groaned, Zeus was having another tantrum.

 _ **At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.**_

 _ **Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.**_

 _ **"Well, well, " Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity. "**_

 _ **I waited.**_

 _ **"Come closer, " Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle- Beard is your father. "**_

 _ **A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.**_

 _ **"Blah, blah, blah, " Dionysus said.**_

 _ **Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.**_

 _ **"If I had my way, " Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm. " "Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D, " Chiron put in.**_

 _ **"Nonsense, " Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father. "**_

Jason mumbled to Percy, "Now I understand why you didn't like Bacchus when we met him in Kansas." Percy just laughed.

 _ **"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.**_

 _ **"Oh, all right, " Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness. " Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do. "**_

 _ **Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass. He snapped his fingers.**_

 _ **The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.**_

 _ **Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover. "**_

 _ **We did.**_

 _ **Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.**_

 _ **"Tell me, Percy, " he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"**_

At the mention of a hellhound, a large bark was heard from the entrance. Annabeth, _Annabeth_ , Percy and Nico all perked up while everyone else went pale in fear. For at the entrance stood Percy's pet hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary. She licked both Percy and Annabeth and insisted they sit with her.

So once Poseidon started again, Percy had explained that Mrs. O'Leary is the world's only friendly hellhound. And then promptly sat down next to Annabeth, on the floor as Mrs. O'Leary curled around them.

 _ **Just hearing the name made me shudder.**_

 _ **Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.**_

 _ **"It scared me, " I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead. " "You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done. "**_

 _ **"Done ... With what?"**_

 _ **"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"**_

 _ **I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.**_

 _ **"Um, sir, " I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet. "**_

Everyone laughed, when had Chiron ever just told them flat out what dangerous and usually deadly quest they'd be going on?!

 _ **Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details. "**_

 _ **Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.**_

 _ **"Poseidon and Zeus, " I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... Something that was stolen, aren't they?"**_

Annabeth muttered something to Percy that made him smile.

 _ **Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.**_

 _ **Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?" My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams. "**_

 _ **"I knew it, " Grover said.**_

 _ **"Hush, satyr, " Chiron ordered.**_

 _ **"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"**_

 _ **"Only the Oracle can determine. " Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt. "**_

Before Zeus could go off on a tirade and try to figure out who stoll his bolt, poseidon continued reading.

 _ **I laughed nervously. "A what?"**_

 _ **"Do not take this lightly, " Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives. "**_

 _ **"Oh. "**_

 _ **"Zeus's master bolt, " Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheared the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers. "**_

 _ **"And it's missing?"**_

That got a few laughs, and Annabeth said, "Yeah Kelp Head, Zeus just misplaced his most powerful weapon somewhere in his palace." Now everyone was rolling on the floor. It took a few minutes but everyone finally managed to calm down.

 _ **"Stolen, " Chiron said.**_

 _ **"By who?"**_

 _ **"By whom, " Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you. " My mouth fell open.**_

 _ **"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best, ' Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters, ' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it. "**_

 _ **"But I didn't-"**_

 _ **"Patience and listen, child, " Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief. "**_

 _ **"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"**_

Everyone looked like they expected Percy to be a pile of ash any second. But to everyone's surprise Destiny was holding Zeus back with a glare that could rival Percy's.

 _ **Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.**_

 _ **"Er, Percy ... ?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky. "**_

 _ **"Perhaps paranoid, " Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam... " He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**_

No one had to imagine the face Percy must have been making because they were getting the same face twice!

 _ **How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.**_

 _ **"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... They, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"**_

 _ **"Correct, " Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along-the proverbial last straw. "**_

 _ **"But I'm just a kid!"**_

 _ **"Percy, " Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**_

 _ **"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon-my dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"**_

 _ **"Bad?" I guessed.**_

 _ **"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight. "**_

 _ **"Bad, " I repeated.**_

 _ **"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath. "**_

"Why am I always the first one to feel the gods wrath whenever they come to blows?" Percy asked the ceiling. The gods looked surprised, while most of the demigods just nodded.

 _ **It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.**_

 _ **I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.**_

 _ **"So I have to find the stupid bolt, " I said. "And return it to Zeus. "**_

 _ **"What better peace offering, " Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"**_

 _ **"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"**_

 _Annabeth_ snorted and turned to _Percy,_ "I love how you describe one of the most powerful objects in the universe in the world as ' _stupid'_ and ' _the thing'." Percy_ just shrugged.

 _ **"I believe I know. " Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... Well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle. "**_

 _ **"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?" "Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge. "**_

 _ **I swallowed. "Good reason. "**_

 _ **"You agree then?"**_

 _ **I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.**_

 _ **Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.**_

 _ **"All right, " I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin. "**_

Frank shrugged, being a dolphin wasn't so bad.

 _ **"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle, " Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more. "**_

 _ **Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trap-door.**_

 _ **I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place. The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... A smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.**_

 _ **I held my breath and climbed.**_

 _ **The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N. Y. , 1969.**_

 _ **By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.**_

Percy and Nico sent glares aimed at Hades, who at least looked sheepish. Meanwhile anyone who had ever consulted the the mummy of the future shivered. Rachel, on the other hand looked offended, "I'm not creepy." She mumbled, and that's when Apollo remembered her shouting out that she was the oracle. To be honest he was rather happy that someone was finally accepted by the spirit of Delphi.

 _ **Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trap-door, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.**_

 _ **I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.**_

 _ **The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either. I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"**_

 _ **The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.**_

 _ **My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.**_

 _ **Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**_

 _ **His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.**_

 _ **The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall he betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**_

 _ **Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**_

Annabeth snuggled into Percy while mumbling about the oracle being creepy.

 _ **The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"**_

 _ **The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.**_

 _ **I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cob-webs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.**_

 _ **My audience with the Oracle was over.**_

 _ **"Well?" Chiron asked me.**_

 _ **I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen. "**_

 _ **Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"**_

 _ **"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important. "**_

 _ **My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. She said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned. "**_

 _ **"I knew it, " Grover said.**_

 _ **Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"**_

 _ **I didn't want to tell him.**_

 _ **What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.**_

Some looked personally offended, they considered themselves his friends, then remembered this was before they had met him.

 _ **And the last line-I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail**_

 _ **How could I confess that?**_

 _ **"No, " I said. "That's about it. "**_

 _ **He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass. "**_

There could be many people heard muttering in agreement at that one statement.

 _ **I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.**_

 _ **"Okay, " I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"**_

 _ **"Ah, think, Percy, " Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"**_

 _ **"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.**_

 _ **"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken. "**_

Hades chose that moment to say, "For the record my kingdom is big enough as it is, I really don't need a war to increase it at all."

 _ **I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spo-ken from under the ground. "Hades. "**_

 _ **Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility. "**_

 _ **A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"**_

 _ **"A Fury came after Percy, " Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades. "**_

 _ **"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes, " Grover pro-tested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon... . "**_

 _ **"A hellhound got into the forest, " Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest. "**_

Percy mumbled something about right theory wrong god but no one could quite make it out.

 _ **"Great, " I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me. "**_

 _ **"But a quest to ... " Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year. "**_

 _ **"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt, " Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth. "**_

 _ **A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.**_

"In my defense I only sent one of those. The Fury and Hellhound were not my fault." Hades said as Poseidon glared at him.

 _ **I was ready to take him on.**_

 _ **Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld … Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.**_

 _Annabeth_ turned to Percy and said, "You don't listen to that part of your brain much do you?" She didn't get an answer.

 _ **Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.**_

 _ **The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.**_

 _ **"Look, if we know it's Hades, " I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads. "**_

 _ **"Suspecting and knowing are not the same, " Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades- and I imagine Poseidon does-they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**_

 _ **"You're saying I'm being used. "**_

 _ **"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you. "**_

 _ **My dad needs me.**_

 _ **Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.**_

 _ **I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"**_

 _ **"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too. "**_

 _ **I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.**_

 _ **"So let me get this straight, " I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead. "**_

 _ **"Check, " Chiron said.**_

 _ **"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe. "**_

 _ **"Check. "**_

 _ **"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days. "**_

"And don't forget to buy some milk and bread on the way back." Leo said in the same voice they had been using, causing everyone to laugh.

 _ **"That's about right. "**_

 _ **I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.**_

 _ **"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.**_

 _Percy_ rolled his eyes, "Do you really expect me to leave you out of this?"

 _ **"You don't have to go, " I told him. "I can't ask that of you. "Oh ... " He shifted his hooves. "No ... It's just that satyrs and underground places ... Well... "**_

 _ **He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If ... If you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down. "**_

 _ **I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.**_

 _ **"All the way, G-man. " I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west. "**_

 _ **"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America. "**_

 _ **"Where?"**_

 _ **Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles. "**_

 _ **"Oh, " I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"**_

 _ **"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"**_

 _ **I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.**_

Percy just nodded along like he thought this was all normal.

 _ **"Percy, think, " Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive. "**_

 _ **Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.**_

 _ **"Okay, " I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland. " "That's right, " Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help. "**_

 _ **"Gee, " I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"**_

Everyone who knew Annabeth looked at Percy and shared one thought, 'How in Hades is this guy still breathing?' Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

 _ **The air shimmered behind Chiron.**_

 _ **Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.**_

 _ **"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain, " she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up. "**_

 _ **"If you do say so yourself, " I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"**_

Destiny squealed something about nicknames starting.

 _ **Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"**_

 _ **The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get. "A trio, " I said. "That'll work. "**_

 _ **"Excellent, " Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own. "**_

 _ **Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.**_

 _ **"No time to waste, " Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing. "**_

Poseidon place the book down and said, "That's the end of the chapter." And handed it to Thalia.

Before she even opened the book, however all the demigods from the future got up and Clarisse pulled Luke away, they all need to talk.

* * *

End of that chapter!

Also I'm thinking of starting a Harry Potter version of this, you know where Harry Potter and those characters read their books, and stuff. Tell me what you think in the comments!

Bye!


	14. Talking

I can't promise a long chapter, but I'm really excited for this one!

Enjoy!

* * *

 _Last Time: Poseidon place the book down and said, "That's the end of the chapter." And handed it to Thalia._

 _Before she even opened the book, however all the demigods from the future got up and Clarisse pulled Luke away, they all need to talk._

Now:

Once they were away from the group Clarisse dropped Luke and glared with everyone else. "Before you start yelling at me, I want you to know that I haven't done any of those things yet." Luke said immediately defensive. Percy walked over to him, and quietly said, "How much do you know of the future?" It wasn't the words he said that sent a shiver down Luke's spine, it was the tone of voice he used. One that promised no matter what Luke had gone through, Percy had been through ten times worse.

"Destiny showed all of it from the time I stole the lightning bolt to when I died to destroy Kronos. Even though I haven't done these things yet I understand why I did them." Luke really did look truly remorseful as he spoke, and Percy had yet to distrust this Luke. "We all get where the Luke we knew was coming from. We really do and still to this day if anyone asked us we would call you a hero." Annabeth added, and it pained Luke to see the little girl he thought of as a sister have the same haunted look he got when he thought of his mother. 'What could she have possibly gone through to get like this?' Luke wondered, and he had a sinking feeling that at some point he was going to find out.

Everyone from the future was angry at Luke. Not for nearly destroying the gods, but for hurting Annabeth and Percy. "Look, as much as I'm sure he's sorry for what he will do, I still say he deserves a good punch for hurting all the people he did." Clarisse said, pulling her fist back to most likely kill him. "Wait!" A new, younger voice shouted, we turned around and saw _Percy_ standing there, looking like he would get in a fight with all of these older kid, for Luke's sake. It broke his heart to know that he'd hurt him so badly one day. "Your all from the future, so why do you want to hurt him? He's one of the only people at this camp that isn't freaking out about who my dad is!"

Nico looked like he was in pain, but told _Percy_ , "I know it seems weird right now _Percy_ , but in the future, Luke is going to do something. We can't tell what he does but you have to know that we still call him a friend. But you can't tell anyone else about this, so go sit back down. Okay?" _Percy_ nodded and left.

"Does anyone else know about the future?" Jason asked. "Yeah. Hermes does. We learned about it together." Luke replied somewhat distantly. Thalia sighed, "Okay, well we'd better get back out there." Everyone agreed and went back to the main room.

Before anyone could start to read, though, Destiny stood up. "Okay people! I have to leave for a while but you should keep reading. I should be back in a few chapters!" and with that she vanished.

* * *

I am so sorry about how long this took! I can't even guarantee a chapter anytime soon. At the moment I'm really only updating when I find time.

Anyway! See ya next time!


	15. Chapter 10

I own nothing! Enjoy the story!

* * *

 _Last Time: Before anyone could start to read, though, Destiny stood up. "Okay people! I have to leave for a while but you should keep reading. I should be back in a few chapters!" and with that she vanished._

Now:

Everyone looked surprised, but Thalia shook it off and started the chapter.

 _ **10 I RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD BUS**_

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover looked a little nervous when they heard the title but everyone else laughed it off, except for the younger ones who were also nervous.

 _ **It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**_

 _Percy_ still looked a little down about the fact that he was going an this quest to try and bring his mom back from the dead.

 _ **The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.**_

"Of course! Because everyone needs golden Girl Scout cookies with them at all times." _Leo_ making everyone laugh.

 _ **The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions-whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**_

Leo smirked, "But Percy! I already am on fire!" and with that he lit up his nose and all ten of his fingers, while grinning like a maniac. This surprised and startled many of the younger readers as they had no idea Leo could do this and _Leo_ in particular was surprised he let his secret be spread around. But those who knew him just rolled their eyes and laughed at the gods who were trying to piece it together, and Hephaestus was just laughing at everyone's faces.

 _ **Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.**_

Leo had since extinguished himself, and couldn't help but ask, "Did it?" Percy shrugged. "Don't know. Never went through a metal detector."

 _ **Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**_

Grover complained, that no they didn't sound bad on reed pipes, and proceeded to demonstrate. Which in turn caused Athena to create a sledge hammer and threaten to destroy the reed pipes if he didn't shut up.

 _ **We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**_

 _Thalia_ glared at _Percy_ for continuing to add that last bit whenever he spoke of her. _Percy_ hid behind Mrs. O'Leary so that _Thalia_ didn't kill him

 _ **Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**_

 _ **"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**_

It took a few seconds before Apollo started grinning like an idiot and started making horrible puns, and Artemis to smack him upside the head telling him to shut it.

 _ **I heard footsteps behind us.**_

 _ **Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes**_

 _ **"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**_

 _ **Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.**_

Athena rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, at least she wasn't with the son of Poseidon that would be truly horrible. (A.N./ I don't think I ever specifically said that Percy and Annabeth were dating, just implied it. Please tell me if I am wrong and I will change this part as soon as possible.)

 _ **"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."**_

 _ **He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**_

"And what does that smell like?" Aphrodite asked a little disgusted. As one both Percy's said, "Sweat, stinky cheese, and a hint of mold." Aphrodite's face turned a little green and excused herself to go puke. _Percy_ had a wicked grin on his face, and Percy was smirking, everyone else followed Aphrodite's example.

 _ **Luke said, "Maia!"**_

 _ **White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**_

 _ **"Awesome!" Grover said.**_

 _ **Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.**_

 _ **I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**_

There was a sudden sound of someone getting punched.

 _ **"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."**_

 _ **"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"**_

 _ **We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.**_

 _ **After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**_

 _ **"Am not."**_

 _ **"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**_

 _ **"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"**_

The others from the future opened their mouths, to say exactly why Annabeth went anywhere with Percy, but at a glare from Percy and Annabeth they closed them

 _ **She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**_

 _ **I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**_

 _ **He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."**_

Zeus glared at the boy, "You had better not enter my territory." _Percy_ was scared, but Percy just smirked.

 _ **I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**_

For reasons not yet understood to anyone except for Percy, Annabeth, Hermes, and Luke, Luke visibly relaxed knowing that Percy never wore those flying shoes.

 _ **His eyes lit up. "Me?"**_

 _ **Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**_

The younger kids started laughing at the mental image.

 _ **"Maia!" he shouted**_

 _ **He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**_

 _ **"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**_

 _ **"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**_

Now everyone was laughing. It took twenty minutes before everyone was calm again.

 _ **Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason-they all got more training.**_

Jason, Piper, Thalia, and Percy all growled at the name Hercules.

 _ **"That's okay. I just wish-"**_

 _ **I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap.**_

 _ **"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**_

"Without what?" All of the gods asked, and Percy just smirked and held Riptide in his pocket.

 _ **He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**_

 _Percy_ got excited, and turned to Percy, "Is that what I think it is?" Percy's only answer was to twirl his  pen around. No one else had put it together yet.

 _ **"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**_

 _ **"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**_

 _ **I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?**_

Now everyone else had caught on and those who knew Percy were smiling, they had always wanted to know how he got Riptide.

 _ **I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**_

 _ **"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."**_

Thalia, Percy, Nico, and Annabeth all flinched at the long and tragic history part.

 _ **"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**_

 _Annabeth_ just sighed. There really was no hope for this boy was there?

 _ **"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**_

 _ **I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"**_

 _ **"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill.**_

Rachel and _Rachel_ both said at the same time, "Wow. Glad to know I'm important."

 _ **And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."**_

"Good to know." Leo said, like he hadn't heard it all before, he had.

 _ **"Good to know."**_

 _ **"Now recap the pen."**_

 _ **I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.**_

Both Percy's sighed, they just have terrible luck with pens.

 _ **"You can't," Chiron said.**_

Everyone backed away from the book while Leo said, "Chiron is a mind reader!" Everyone just looked freaked out so no one responded.

 _ **"Can't what?"**_

 _ **"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**_

 _ **I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass. "It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**_

 _ **Sure enough, the pen was there.**_

 _Percy_ looked surprised. "That's extremely cool."

 _ **"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**_

All of the younger kids laughed at the parallels.

 _ **Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."**_

 _ **"Mist?"**_

 _ **"Yes. Read The Iliad.**_

Everyone who knew Percy started laughing, picturing him actually reading a book/poem.

 _ **It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**_

 _ **I put Riptide back in my pocket.**_

 _ **For the first time, the quest felt real.**_

 _Annabeth_ smacked _Percy_ upside the head, "Only just now!? Not back when the Oracle was giving a prophecy?!" Annabeth laughed at how her younger self was acting, while Percy pouted about the younger Annabeth hitting his younger self up side the head.

 _ **I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**_

Leo couldn't help it, "So a normal quest then?" But wisely shut up when he saw that Poseidon looked like he was going to murder him.

 _ **"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right?"**_

"Yes of course there were. Thank the Fates." Poseidon said while glaring at his brother. "I don't think I'd be able to take his dramatics if not." Hades finished. All the other gods were trying to conceal their smiles, even Hera!, while Zeus sputtered angrily.

 _ **"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**_

 _ **"So what was it like ... before the gods?"**_

All of the elder gods looked grim, "You really don't want to know." Hestia said, remembering growing up in her father's stomach.

 _ **Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**_

Hera and Artemis snorted, "Yes warmed after they discovered how _**pretty**_ humans could be." Artemis said, with no small amount of disdain for the male gods in the room, she didn't even bother trying to reprimand Aphrodite. She was the goddess of love not much you could do to stop her. But that never stopped Hera from trying.

 _ **"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up every-thing, right?"**_

Thalia looked at Percy and said, "You? Go on a quest that if messed up wouldn't ruin everything?" She snorted. "Not a chance Kelp for Brains." Thalia, Nico, Jason, and Hazel all started laughing at their cousin, because if you couldn't laugh at family, who could you laugh at? And it wasn't long before Percy joined them too.

It amazed _Percy_ that he had friends, no family, that cared for him this much besides his mom. Although it did worry both _Percy_ and Poseidon that he would apparently be going on a lot of, dangerous, quests.

 _ **Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**_

Many people were beginning to draw conclusions about their hostess.

 _ **"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."**_

Nico snorted, "Oh but where's the fun in that?" he said sarcastically, Bianca was devastated to see how her little brother, apparently, turned out.

 _ **"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**_

"Chiron needs to learn how to give a pep talk."

 _ **"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."**_

 _ **When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horseman form, holding his bow high in salute.**_

Thalia growled, "Keep referring to me like that and I'll zap you." Percy just smirked.

 _ **Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**_

"You sound insane." _Leo_ told Percy, who just laughed.

 _ **Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were nor-mal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**_

The rest of the Seven started laughing their buts off.

 _ **"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**_

There were many mumbles of 'idiot' and 'you just jinxed it' around the room and the gods looked surprised that they all seemed so certain they would be attacked.

 _ **She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**_

 _ **"Remind me again-why do you hate me so much?"**_

 _ **"I don't hate you."**_

"She loves you! OW! Annabeth!"

 _ **"Could've fooled me."**_

 _ **She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**_

 _ **"Why?"**_

 _ **She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better,**_ _**so they named the city after her."**_

 _ **"They must really like olives."**_

Athena rolled her eyes, and a few people began to snicker.

 _ **"Oh, forget it."**_

A couple went from snickering to giggling.

 _ **"Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand."**_

Everyone, but Athena was giggling.

 _ **"I said, forget it!"**_

'At least my daughter is standing up for me.' Athena thought even as a small smile formed on her face.

 _ **In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**_

Now everyone, and I do mean everyone, just burst out laughing.

 _ **Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**_

 _ **Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?**_

 _ **I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.**_

Annabeth looked at Percy sadly, "We noticed."

 _ **Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**_

 _ **I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**_

With almost sudden results at the mention of the man's name, everyone turned an evil eye on their resident punching bag. Everyone was willing to pause the book to take a crack at the human, who in their opinion barely qualified as human.

First Poseidon, who drowned him then, with the help of Zeus, electrocuted him.

Then Aphrodite, who packed a seriously wicked punch despite being the goddess of love.

After her went, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, Jason, Hazel, Leo, Frank, and Piper all went after him.

After the demigods got done, the rest of the Olympians took turns beating him up.

When they were finished they continued to read.

 _ **Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"**_

Leo looked around and asked, "Does this count as mind reading?" What he got in response was to wait and find out.

 _ **I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or some-thing?"**_

 _ **"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your step-dad, right?"**_

"It is mind reading!"

 _ **I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**_

 _ **"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura... Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**_

"Ew ew ew ew ew!" Aphrodite squealed, everyone else nodded along, wondering how many showers it would take to get the smell off after being near him for so long.

 _ **"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**_

 _ **"You should be grateful, Percy.**_

"Nope. Still grossed out."

 _ **Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy-if that makes you feel any better."**_

"Uh no. Honestly it just makes me want to punch him again." Percy said, glaring at Gabe, who was still recovering from the epic bashing he just got.

 _ **It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it. I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**_

 _ **I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them. I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.**_

 _Annabeth_ looked at Percy and said, "Just from this book, of course we knew the real reason you accepted the quest."

 _ **The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt,**_

"INSOLENT MORTAL!" Zeus bellowed, _Percy_ looked horrified, while Percy hardly looked surprised and simply said, "It's true."

 _ **or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**_

Poseidon flinched, and all of the demigods sent their parents pointed looks, making the other gods flinch as well.

 _ **All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**_

"Little mortal life is never _fair,_ do not be surprised when I ignore you completely." Hades said, to both Percy's. To the gods astonishment, they both answered, " _Nothing will stop me from saving the ones I care about. Not even a god."_ The younger demigods were surprised _Percy,_ who had been freaking out every time a god looked at him, was now openly glaring at them daring anyone of them to challenge what he just said.

 _ **You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**_

 _ **Shut up, I told it.**_

 _Leo_ and Leo burst out laughing.

 _ **The rain kept coming down.**_

 _ **We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**_

 _ **The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared-core, stem, and all.**_

Everyone started laughing.

 _ **Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**_

Now they were laughing even harder.

 _ **Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy-enchiladas.**_

 _ **"What is it?" I asked.**_

 _ **"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**_

"Grover you're with Percy, there's no way in Hades that it's nothing." Thalia said, forgetting they were reading a book.

 _ **But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.**_

 _ **I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our back-packs. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.**_

 _ **As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."**_

Poseidon was starting to get nervous again, what else could possibly attack his son?! Echidna?!

 _ **An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**_

And suddenly Poseidon went from terrified to trying to strangle his brother. "You sent a fury after my son?! Again?!" It took the combined efforts of Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus and Artemis to get him back to his seat.

 _ **It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.**_

 _ **I scrunched down in my seat.**_

 _ **Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds-same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**_

Poseidon didn't bother to attack him this time, he knew the result would be the same, instead he glared at Hades with a death glare that made Hades glad he was lord of the dead.

 _ **They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**_

 _ **The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**_

"I said if you're lucky." _Annabeth_ said with a slight tremor in her voice. "You're obviously not."

 _ **"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**_

They were all too nervous to laugh about the parallels.

 _ **"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"**_

 _ **"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**_

In a surprisingly cheerful voice Percy said, "Nope!"

 _ **"They don't open," Grover moaned.**_

 _ **"A back exit?" she suggested.**_

"You wish."

 _ **There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**_

 _ **"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"**_

 _Annabeth_ just shook her head. Was it wrong for her to assume that the boy had figured it out by now?!

 _ **"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**_

 _ **"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"**_

Hermes shrugged, "Eh, 50/50."

 _ **She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"**_

"Sorry try again." Percy replied yet again, causing Annabeth to punch him.

 _ **We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**_

 _ **Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the restroom."**_

 _ **"So do I," said the second sister.**_

 _ **"So do I," said the third sister.**_

"And no one finds that creepy?!"

 _ **They all started coming down the aisle.**_

 _ **"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."**_

Everyone waits for Percy's rejection statement, but are met with silence. They all look at him, "What? This is the plan we go with."

 _ **"What?"**_

 _ **"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**_

"I'm surprised you agreed to this Percy." Leo says shocked. Percy replies, "Just wait for it."

 _ **"But you guys-"**_

 _ **"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**_

 _ **"I can't just leave you."**_

"That sounds a little more like you."

 _ **"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**_

 _ **My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.**_

 _ **When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**_

 _ **I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**_

Three words passed through everyone's mind, 'Moment of truth.'

 _ **Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.**_

 _ **Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.**_

 _ **I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**_

 _ **The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same-I guess those couldn't get any uglier- but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.**_

"You do know you don't have to give us every detail, don't you!?" _Nico_ said, shivering next to his sister.

 _ **The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"**_

 _ **The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.**_

"But who knows what."

 _ **"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"**_

 _ **The Furies raised their whips.**_

 _ **Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**_

 _ **What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**_

"Now that really sounds like you."

 _ **The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.**_

 _ **Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**_

Annabeth laughed, "It was! Now that I'm not dead it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen!"

 _ **"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey-whoa!"**_

 _ **We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.**_

 _ **We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**_

 _ **Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**_

"That's great! You'll live!" Poseidon said, and was immediately smacked by two other gods: Athena and Dionysus. "And what about Annabeth/Grover!"

 _ **Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**_

"Good."

 _ **The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out,**_

"Aren't they supposed to be the last ones out?" Artemis asked incredulously. Percy nodded, and Artemis huffed. Men.

 _ **the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**_

 _ **The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**_

 _ **I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**_

"And there's the Percy we know and love!" Leo shouted.

 _ **The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test.**_

Athena looked horrified at the concept of an F on any kind of test.

 _ **Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**_

 _ **Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**_

 _ **"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**_

"You know I think that's the first time a monster or god had said that to me." Percy said making Poseidon pale and ask how many times he has been told that. Percy shrugged and said, "At this moment I can't even remember how many have said that." This didn't help Poseidon much.

 _ **"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.**_

 _ **She growled.**_

 _ **Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**_

 _ **I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**_

 _ **The Furies hesitated.**_

 _ **Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**_

"Well I really like seeing it again!"

 _ **"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**_

"Hey! That's the first time I was told that too!"

 _ **"Nice try," I told her.**_

 _ **"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**_

 _ **Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**_

 _ **My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide. I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust.**_

"Wait, wait, wait. Am I supposed to believe that this is the second time you've gone up against the Fury's and both times you've had almost no experience?" Frank asked, and when Percy nodded, Frank morphed into a cat and laid on Hazel's lap, while glaring at Percy. The people from the future just rolled their eyes, everyone else freaked out, especially _Frank_.

 _ **Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**_

 _ **"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**_

 _ **The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**_

"Two down! One to go!"

 _ **Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**_

 _ **"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**_

 _ **"Braccas meas vescimini!" I yelled.**_

 _Jason, Hazel, Frank_ along with Jason, Hazel and Frank all laughed.

 _ **I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant "Eat my pants!"**_

Through their laughing the Romans managed to nod, that yes that is what it means.

 _ **Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**_

Poseidon glared at Zeus.

 _ **"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**_

 _ **We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**_

 _ **"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our-"**_

 _ **BOOOOOM!**_

"Are you just trying to kill my son?" Poseidon growled out.

 _ **The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**_

"How is she still not dead!?"

 _ **"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**_

 _ **We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.**_

Thalia sighed and handed the book to Percy, who just sighed, remembering what would happen in the next chapter.

* * *

I'm alive! I am so sorry at how long this took! But I hope you enjoyed!

Happy Holidays!

See ya next time!


	16. Chapter 11

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update but I should be able to get chapters out more frequently now.

I do not own Percy Jackson, or any of the characters. That right belongs to Rick Riordan.

Enjoy the story!

* * *

 _Last time:_ _Thalia sighed and handed the book to Percy, who just sighed, remembering what would happen in the next chapter._

Now:

"Why do you guys look so down?" Hazel asked, because she hadn't heard of Percy's first quest. Annabeth just shook her head and replied, "I can never look at a statue the same ever again." Percy, while having the same feeling couldn't help but say, "Well all but one. My mom 'sculpted' one once and when I first saw it I had honestly never felt happier." Now everyone was curious as to what could possibly happen, though Athena and Poseidon had a fair idea of what would happen. Everyone looked at Percy with and basically commanded him to read the chapter.

 _ **11 WE VISIT THE GARDEN GNOME EMPORIUM**_

Poseidon had paled considerably. Athena looked like she wanted to strangle him.

 _ **In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.**_

Apollo and Hermes started smiling when they heard the first part, then looked offended when they heard the rest, and everyone else just laughed.

 _ **For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.**_

"Yes. But somehow you just make it sound funny." Thalia said while laughing.

 _ **So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.**_

 _Percy_ wrinkled his nose. "I don't care if I am a child of the god of the sea. The Hudson is still the Hudson and it stinks!"

 _ **Grover was shivering and burying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."**_

Luke shuddered, remembering the last time he saw all three at once.

 _ **I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."**_

 _ **"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."**_

 _ **"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"**_

 _ **"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"**_

 _ **"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."**_

 _Grover_ snorted, "Sliced like lunch meat, but fine."

 _Annabeth_ glared at Grover, "Shut up goat boy."

Percy just smothered a laugh because he knew what the next lines would be.

 _ **"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."**_

 _ **"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.**_

Now everyone was cracking up.

 _ **Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."**_

 _ **We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.**_

 _ **After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."**_

Aphrodite internally squealed, she can see a blooming couple!

 _ **"We're a team, right?"**_

 _ **She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."**_

"Thanks wise girl, nice to know me being dead is the second most important thing." Annabeth rolled her eyes and didn't reply.

Aphrodite looked interested, perhaps she wouldn't need to set them up.

 _ **The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.**_

Luke smirked at Percy, "Is there any particular reason you were watching her like that?" Percy and _Percy_ both blushed and looked away, making Luke laugh, and everyone else from the future smile like they knew something everyone else didn't.

 _ **"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.**_

 _ **"No ... only short field trips. My dad-"**_

 _ **"The history professor."**_

 _ **"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."**_

Nico held up a piece of paper and pencil, and in a very reportery voice said, "Can I quote you on that?" Annabeth thought for a moment, smiled, and replied, "I take it back. Camp is just as hard to survive as the real world." And with that all the futures just burst out laughing, at an inside joke.

 _ **If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.**_

"Never!"

 _ **"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.**_

 _ **"You think so?"**_

"Not just good, you're terrifying."

 _ **"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."**_

The mental image of someone having a Fury give them a piggyback-ride invaded everyone's mind. Making many try and smother their laughter, while others just started rolling on the floor. A few were crying they were laughing so hard.

 _ **I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.**_

 _ **"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you ... Something funny back on the bus ..."**_

 _ **Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.**_

Athena rolled her eyes, "The sea spawn would have an owl be the one to be tortured." Poseidon was going to retort but Percy read on not giving him the chance.

 _ **"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"**_

 _ **He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.**_

 _Grover_ blushed.

 _ **Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.**_

 _ **Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.**_

Leo actually got out a very small notebook and turned to the first page, and wrote something down. Nico and Thalia laughed when they saw the front of the notebook. It read, ' _Superpowers Percy doesn't have_ '.

 _ **After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.**_

The sound of a double cheeseburger apparently sounded good to more than just Percy as Thalia, Nico, Jason, Bianca, _Nico_ , _Thalia_ , _Jason_ , and _Percy_ 's stomachs all growled, making everyone laugh. Someone also noted that only the stomachs of the children of the Big Three growled, and voiced it. Sending the demigods into another round of hysterics, while the gods look on in obvious affection.

 _ **We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.**_

 _ **It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped.**_

Everyone smothered laughter at _Nico's_ look of obvious sadness.

 _ **It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.**_

All of the demigods that hadn't been there, or been there yet, groaned in horror of trying to decipher that kind of writing.

 _ **To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.**_

 _ **"What the heck does that say?" I asked.**_

 _ **"I don't know," Annabeth said.**_

It was dead silence for a few seconds as the demigods tried to process the idea that Annabeth had dyslexia as well.

 _ **She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.**_

 _ **Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."**_

Suddenly Hades knew where this was going and groaned. Already getting ready for the fight that would ensue between Poseidon and Athena. No one else besides Poseidon and Athena seemed to realize what monster they were about to see.

 _ **Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.**_

A few looks of confusion but still nothing.

 _ **I crossed the street, following the smell of the ham-burgers.**_

 _ **"Hey ..." Grover warned.**_

 _ **"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."**_

 _ **"Snack bar," I said wistfully**_

 _ **"Snack bar," she agreed.**_

"The children of immortal rivals agreeing on something?" Apollo started. "It must be the end of the world." Hermes finished. They, along with the demigods started laughing, only to be stopped when Athena and Poseidon glared at them.

 _ **"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."**_

 _ **We ignored him.**_

"Of course you did."

 _ **The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.**_

 _ **"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"**_

Hades looked around once again to see if anyone else had caught on. It appeared to him as if Dionysus, Artemis, Apollo, and Demeter had caught on. So the grand total so far was:7. Hades sighed, knowing it would take the rest of his family a while to figure it out.

 _ **We stopped at the warehouse door.**_

 _ **"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."**_

 _ **"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"**_

Athena sighed, "Letting your hunger override your good judgement." Annabeth just shrugged.

 _ **"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."**_

 _ **"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.**_

 _ **"Those are vegetables.**_

Demeter looked at the young satyr and, in an almost remorseful voice said, "That's only because you don't have enough cereal! Honestly if ate more cereal you satyrs wouldn't be so thin and sickly!" Hades sighed in exasperation, but glad that, for once, her rant wasn't directed at him.

 _ **Come on. Let's leave. These statues are ... looking at me."**_

 _ **Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman-at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.**_

The rest of the gods donned near identical looks of recognition, then looks of shock as they wonder how in the name of themselves did these demigods survive!?

 _ **Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"**_

"Well that really depends. Do you want the mortal parents or the godly parents?"

 _ **"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say.**_

 _ **"We're orphans," I said.**_

"Or that."

 _ **"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"**_

 _ **"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"**_

All the older demigods just shake their heads, having been apart of a conversation with Percy where he just randomly changes the subject.

 _ **"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."**_

Now most of the demigods had also figured out who Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were dealing with.

 _ **We thanked her and went inside.**_

 _ **Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"**_

 _ **"Always have a strategy, right?"**_

 _ **"Your head is full of kelp."**_

"And thus the birth of Kelp head!"

"Shut up Pinecone face!"

The argument continued, somehow drawing in Nico. The younger versions of everyone involved in the argument looked on wondering how they would ever be friends that could argue like this.

 _ **The warehouse was filled with more statues-people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size.**_

The only thing Hades had to say to the pointed looks everyone was giving him was,"Persephone's garden." At which point Thalia, Nico, and Percy all shuddered and as one said, "Never again."

 _ **But mostly, I was thinking about food.**_

 _ **Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair-it made everything else go away. I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.**_

Jason face palmed, "You were paying enough attention to notice that she locked the door, but not enough to wonder why?!" Percy just kept reading.

 _ **All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.**_

Suddenly all of the demigod's stomachs rumbled making Hestia laugh, "How about after this chapter we have lunch?"

This proposal was met with much agreement.

 _ **"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.**_

 _ **"Awesome," I said.**_

 _ **"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."**_

 _Percy_ hissed to _Grover_ , "Stop talking! If we have to fight this monster at least let us eat first!" Everyone was struck by how this was both, stupid and smart. But then again, that pretty much summed up Percy Jackson.

 _ **Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."**_

 _ **"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.**_

 _ **Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done some-thing wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.**_

"When will you learn not to dismiss things as your imagination!"

 _ **"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.**_

 _ **Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.**_

Now everyone was drooling with hunger.

 _ **I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**_

"So you at every meal then?"

"Haha."

 _ **Annabeth slurped her shake.**_

"And Annabeth's just as bad!" Leo said, making everyone laugh. Especially when Annabeth slapped him for saying that.

 _ **Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**_

 _ **"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**_

 _ **I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**_

 _ **"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**_

 _ **"I take vitamins. For my ears."**_

"Yeah cause that's not suspicious at all."

 _ **"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**_

 _ **Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head-dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**_

Poseidon groaned, "Please don't."

 _ **"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**_

 _ **"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**_

Nico snorted, "Yeah. If you're a god that likes your garden decorated with the dead." Bianca looked startled that her baby brother, who was very shy, would say something like that.

 _ **"A lot of business on this road?"**_

 _ **"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**_

In a fake cheery voice Frank said, "And what better way to cherish them, then by turning them all to stone?"

 _ **My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**_

"She's warning you from beyond the graaaaaaavve!" Leo said, dragging out grave, making everyone laugh.

 _ **"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**_

 _ **"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**_

"Any alarm bells yet, Jackson?" Clarisse asked sarcastically.

 _ **"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**_

 _ **Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**_

Everyone moved forward, hoping to hear the awesome fight.

 _ **"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for chil-dren, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me,**_

Athena rolled her eyes.

 _ **long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident.**_

The evil eye Athena gave the book assured everyone that it was no accident.

 _ **My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**_

 _ **I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**_

 _ **"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**_

For once it was _Percy_ that shouted, "Listen to her you idiot!"

 _ **She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**_

 _ **"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**_

One word ran through all of the demigods, ' _Creepy!'_

 _ **She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly**_

 _ **"We really should go."**_

"Yes you should."

 _ **"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**_

"You know," Hermes started to say, "I'm really impressed that they kept up the circus story."

 _ **I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**_

Poseidon shook his head as if to say, No you really don't.

 _ **"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**_

 _ **"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**_

 _ **"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."**_

 _ **Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"**_

 _ **"Sure we can," I said. I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**_

All of the future demigods started mumbling something about seaweed brains, kelp heads, and idiots.

 _ **"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**_

 _ **I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**_

Athena looked like she was about to suker punch Poseidon so Percy quickly continued the story.

 _ **Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."**_

 _ **"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**_

 _Jason_ looked at Percy like he was mutant, "How are you still alive?! You notice everything wrong but you don't!" _Percy_ laughed, "It's a gift."

 _ **"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**_

 _ **"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**_

"Listen to the goat boy!"

 _ **Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**_

 _ **Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."**_

"Seriously have none of you put it together yet!?"

 _ **"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**_

 _ **She still had no camera in her hands.**_

 _ **"Percy-" Annabeth said.**_

 _ **Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**_

Percy's voice kind of trailed off, as if he was there again fighting of the voice all over again.

Annabeth punched his arm and told him to keep reading.

 _ **"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."**_

 _ **"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**_

 _ **"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**_

"Seriously, run!"

 _ **"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.**_

Everyone cheered at the small victory of someone figuring out what they were dealing with.

 _ **"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench**_

"Go Annabeth!" Clarisse shouted while smiling.

 _ **I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.**_

 _ **I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**_

 _ **Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**_

Everyone shuddered at the mental imaging Percy gave them.

 _ **I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**_

 _ **More rasping-the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**_

"Two people have figured it out. And Percy seems to finally be getting a clue!" Frank said, excited to hear more about Percy's first quest.

 _ **"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers**_

 _ **I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**_

 _ **"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."**_

"Creepy!"

 _ **I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens- a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**_

Everyone started counting in their heads. 3.

 _ **Aunty Em.**_

2.

 _ **Aunty "M."**_

1.

 _ **How could I have been so stupid?**_

"We wonder that everyday Prissy."

 _ **Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?**_

 _ **But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**_

"Wow. That's gotta be like double embarrassing then! First getting killed by Zeus's Perseus and now about to get killed by Poseidon's Percy! All she needs now is for Hades to have a kid named Perseus and get killed by him. Then she could brag to all the other monsters that she got defeated by

three different Percy's!" Leo and _Leo_ said in unison, making everyone around them laugh.

 _ **"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**_

"Please, if you want to blame anyone, blame Poseidon." Athena rolled her eyes.

 _ **"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, some-where in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"**_

 _ **"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."**_

Everyone just rolled their eyes at Medusa.

 _ **"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.**_

 _ **"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**_

"I can't even begin to list the number of times a monster has said that to me."

 _ **"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"**_

Everyone was so caught up in the story they actually ducked!

 _ **I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**_

 _ **"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**_

 _ **That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me. I dove to one side.**_

"Thanks for the vote of confidence!"

"No problem!"

 _ **Thwack!**_

 _ **At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**_

 _ **"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**_

 _ **"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**_

 _ **I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**_

 _ **Ker-whack!**_

 _ **"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.**_

 _ **Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"**_

 _ **I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome.**_

Everyone burst into tiny giggles.

 _ **"Jeez! Don't do that!"**_

 _ **Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."**_

 _ **"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**_

 _ **"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You-you've got a chance."**_

"A chance because of a very creepy reason." Leo shuddered.

 _ **"What? I can't-"**_

 _ **"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**_

 _ **She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**_

Aphrodite looked personally offended at that.

 _ **Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of-"**_

"Would you speak English?" _Percy_ said to _Annabeth_.

"I am!"

 _ **"Would you speak English?"**_

 _ **"I am!"**_

"Somethings never change."

"Shut up Leo!"

 _ **She tossed me the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."**_

 _ **"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**_

 _ **"Roooaaarrr!"**_

 _ **"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**_

 _ **"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."**_

"What is with you two thinking I'll crash!"

 _ **I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**_

 _ **I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**_

 _ **I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**_

"Was she as ugly as they say?"

"Much worse."

 _ **Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**_

 _ **Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**_

 _ **I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**_

The future demigods just playfully rolled their eyes.

 _ **But she let me approach-twenty feet, ten feet.**_

 _ **I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.**_

"Actually, the green swirls were making it better!"

 _ **"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**_

 _ **I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass-the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**_

 _ **From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"**_

 _ **Medusa cackled. "Too late."**_

 _ **She lunged at me with her talons.**_

Even though they knew he was alive, he was reading it to them for Zeus's sake! Everyone waited for the lines saying he died.

 _ **I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-the sound of a monster disintegrating.**_

"Of course you would survive three different attacks from Greeks most terrifying monster!"

 _ **Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**_

A high pitched squeal informed everyone exactly what Aphrodite thought of that description.

 _ **"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**_

 _ **Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."**_

 _ **Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**_

"Ew."

 _ **"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling**_

 _ **"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't ... why didn't the head evaporate?"**_

 _ **"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**_

There was something about the way that Percy smirked and looked over a Gabe that gave everyone a feeling he knew exactly how well it petrified.

 _ **Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**_

 _ **"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**_

 _ **He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."**_

"I don't know man it could've been worse. You could've landed on a concrete porcupine!" Leo stated while laughing.

 _ **He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.**_

 _ **We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**_

 _ **Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**_

All the gods groaned, they had never heard an end to that particular argument.

 _ **Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girl-friend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."**_

"One time I really wish I didn't."

 _ **My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."**_

 _ **Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**_

 _ **"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**_

 _ **"You're insufferable."**_

 _ **"You're-"**_

"Someone get the duct tape. Quick! Before Athena and Poseidon start too!" Hermes shouted making the demigods laugh.

 _ **"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine,**_

"Satyrs don't even get migraines." Apollo pointed out.

 _ **and satyrs don't even get migraines.**_

"I think like a goat! NOOOOOOOO!" Apollo shouted. Artemis smirked, saying that's exactly what she thought of Apollo.

 _ **What are we going to do with the head?"**_

"Probably the stupidest thing Percy has ever done." Annabeth said while holding in her laughter.

 _ **I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**_

 _ **I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**_

 _ **What had Medusa said?**_

 _ **Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.**_

"Maybe but I much prefer him as he is."

 _ **I got up. "I'll be back."**_

 _ **"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"**_

 _ **I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**_

"That's how they know where to look for Hades, I bet you anything." Apollo whispered to Hermes, who of course agreed.

 _ **In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.**_

"What in the name of the gods am I thinking?"

 _ **I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**_

 _ **The Gods**_

 _ **Mount Olympus**_

 _ **600th Floor,**_

 _ **Empire State Building**_

 _ **New York, NY**_

 _ **With best wishes,**_

 _ **PERCY JACKSON**_

For a few seconds everything was silent. Then all of the demigods burst into laughter. Taking half an hour to calm down.

 _ **"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**_

 _ **I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!**_

 _ **"I am impertinent," I said.**_

No one even tried to disagree.

 _ **I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**_

 _ **She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she mut-tered. "We need a new plan."**_

Percy smiled as he finished the chapter, place a bookmark in it and looked at Hestia. Who for her part smiled and led everyone to a kitchen type place that had appeared.

But before they could start eating a door opened and a boy about the same age as their hostess walked out.

"Um, who are you?"

* * *

I'm alive! I am really sorry about how long it has taken me to update, but here it is!

See you all next time!

Bye.


	17. Lunch

Hey! I'm back!

I don't own Percy Jackson or anything else!

Enjoy!

* * *

 _Last time:_ _But before they could start eating a door opened and a boy about the same age as their hostess walked out._

" _Um, who are you?"_

 _Now:_

The young man smiled and introduced himself. "I am Chance, the older and smarter brother of Destiny. And I must say it is quite the -" Before Chance could continue speaking a piece of paper appeared out of nowhere and landed in Chance's hand.

After reading whatever was on the paper, he paled and quickly rushed out the same door he came out of, which then collapsed behind him.

Unfortunately Chance didn't notice that he had left the letter behind in his hasty retreat. Luke picked it up and read it out loud.

 **Dear Chance,**

 **If you don't leave right now I will make sure that your** **destiny** **is filled with pain and won't give you the** **choice** **or** **chance** **to change your** **fate** **. This is not the time to be messing with their heads and confusing them even more than they already are.**

 **So if you wish to continue living you will leave.**

 **Love,**

 **Your younger sister, Destiny.**

 **P.S. Make sure you take this letter with you.**

After Luke read the letter, everyone didn't know whether to be scared for their lives or be incredibly happy that her anger wasn't directed at them.

"Ehem. Well that was certainly… interesting, but we should really finish eating and get back to reading the book." Hestia announced, after a few minutes of silence.

After what had to be the quickest meal in the world everyone finished and headed back to the main room.

* * *

Just a little chapter that had nothing to do with the story. Oh well.

See ya next time!


	18. Chapter 12

Hey! Chapter 12! Yay!

I don't own anything!

Enjoy!

* * *

 _Last time: After what had to be the quickest meal in the world everyone finished and headed back to the main room._

 _Now:_

Zeus picked up the book, and opened it to the correct page. When he looked up everyone was staring at him in shock.

"What?" he bellowed. Athena shook her head and answered, "Father, it's just that most of us have never seen you pick up, let alone open, a book. We are all in shock."

Zeus decided then that it would just be best to ignore them and start reading.

 _ **12 WE GET ADVICE FROM A POODLE**_

Everyone burst out laughing. Advice from a poodle that's a new one.

 _ **We were pretty miserable that night.**_

 _ **We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.**_

All of the gods rolled their eyes. Leave it to humans to pollute their most beautiful places without a second thought.

 _ **We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.**_

"For once Percy didn't jinx us!" Annabeth shouted in mock surprise. "Oh ha ha."

 _ **We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.**_

"The first of many times Percy has volunteered for first watch with no intention of ever letting someone else take second." Annabeth accused. Percy didn't even bother denying it.

 _ **Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.**_

 _ **"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."**_

"Meaning not at all." _Annabeth_ translated, while also backing up Annabeth's previous statement.

 _ **He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."**_

 _ **"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"**_

Eye rolls from all of Percy's friends.

 _ **"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."**_

 _ **"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."**_

 _ **He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast …**_

 _Percy_ looked at _Grover_ , "Ya know sometimes it's hard to remember that you're not human." _Percy_ told his friend. "Good, that's part of my job!" _Grover_ replied.

 _ **ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."**_

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?" _Leo_ asked the young satyr.

"Pan! P-A-N!" _Grover_ yelled at _Leo_.

 _ **"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"**_

 _ **"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"**_

"I don't know, the world's best enchilada?" Percy said jokingly making everyone laugh.

 _ **A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.**_

Percy still looked nostalgic for that scent, but he and Annabeth almost seemed sad when it came up.

 _Grover_ meanwhile looked surprised, Lord Pan was reacting to something he and _Percy_ would talk about.

 _ **"Tell me about the search," I said.**_

 _ **Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.**_

 _Percy_ looked offended, "I wouldn't make fun of you if you're this serious about it!"

"I know _Percy_ , I know."

 _ **"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."**_

Annabeth honestly looked like she was about to cry, and Percy wasn't far behind.

Apollo looked at the two worriedly, had something happened to Pan?

 _ **"And you want to be a searcher."**_

 _ **"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there-"**_

 _ **"Oh, right, sorry."**_

 _ **Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."**_

"You aren't the first satyr to say this, and you probably won't be the last." Apollo said seriously. Surprising Artemis, who didn't think her brother could be serious outside of war.

 _ **"Hang on-the first?"**_

 _ **Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."**_

"Ya know, now I'm kinda glad Coach Hedge didn't want to be a searcher." Clarisse said, actually smiling fondly along with Piper, Jason, and Leo.

 _ **"Not once in two thousand years?"**_

 _ **"No."**_

 _ **"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"**_

 _ **"None."**_

 _ **"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"**_

"It is pretty amazing how many satyrs are willing to go on this suicide mission." Mr.D said, almost sadly.

 _ **"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."**_

Now Percy, Annabeth, and Nico really were fighting back tears.

 _ **I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?**_

"Nope!"

 _ **"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"**_

Despite his sad eyes, Percy actually looked like he was fighting back a laugh. Everyone who wasn't on his first quest looked at him like he was crazy. Percy just motioned them on vaguely suggesting that it'll be explained later in the story.

 _ **"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me-"**_

 _ **"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."**_

"Of course I do kealphead. Because every time you try to plan it backfires somehow."

 _ **"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.**_

Thalia, _Thalia_ , Percy, Annabeth, and _Luke_ all groaned, "It wasn't your fault Grover!"

 _ **"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"**_

 _ **Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.**_

 _ **"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't ... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong-"**_

"And seaweed brain finally figures it out!" Thalia shouts, making Percy shove her in the shoulder.

 _ **"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Some-thing isn't what it seems."**_

 _ **"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder-bolt that Hades took."**_

Hades growled at the Percys, "Careful boy." _Percy_ looked on almost defiantly, but not quite, Percy just rolled his eyes.

 _ **"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur-The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."**_

"Trying to rip us to shreds isn't as aggressive as they could've been?! Good! If their holding back that means that we are less likely to die!" _Percy_ said, hyperventilating slightly. Percy nudged his younger self, "Don't worry too much about it. It'll make you gray prematurely." Then he pointed to one side of his head, that had a single streak of gray hair. Unsurprisingly this did not calm _Percy_ down.

 _ **"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."**_

 _ **Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"**_

This made a few of the gods sit up straighter. Was it possible that something of Hades's had been stolen?

 _ **"Asking about me," I said.**_

 _ **"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."**_

Hades seemed to pale even more if that was possible, was his helm missing?

 _ **"That doesn't make sense."**_

 _ **"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.**_

"Then we can't misunderstand the quest."

 _ **I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," I told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."**_

Zeus growled at Percy, "Choose your next words carefully." To the gods, and all of the younger kids surprise, Percy, Thalia, and Nico all more or less did the same thing. They all rolled their eyes.

 _ **Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"**_

 _ **"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."**_

 _Grover_ rolled his eyes, he hadn't even lived through it yet and he could already sense how much _Percy_ wanted to please his father. Prove that he was worth it.

 _ **Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."**_

Both Percy's blushed.

 _ **"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."**_

 _ **Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."**_

 _ **"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."**_

At this everyone from the future, bar Percy, groaned. They each had an assortment of things say.

"Don't be so modest!"

"You just killed Medusa! Brag a little!"

"You are too modest!"

"Seaweed Brain, take some pride!"

"Everyone is allowed to brag a little!"

"Kelp Head, if you don't take credit I will personally electrocute you."

"Percy you need to be a little more confident."

"Prissy, I will punch you into next week if you keep up the modest act."

"You've achieved more without training than most demigods do with years!"

"How are you so modest!?"

(A.N./ If you're wondering the order goes: Rachel, Leo, Jason, Annabeth, Piper, Thalia, Hazel, Clarisse, Frank, Nico.)

Percy and _Percy_ blushed. They hadn't meant to come off as so modest. They just really didn't see themselves as great, besides they clearly had a lot of help!

But something told them that if either of them tried to voice this they would be yelled at again.

 _ **Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."**_

 _ **I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.**_

"You tricked me."

"Yep!"

 _ **In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.**_

Percy, Annabeth, and Nico started to shake.

 _ **They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.**_

Thalia got up and grabbed each one, she whispered something that the others couldn't hear.

 _ **Looking down made me dizzy.**_

 _ **The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that some-thing was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.**_

She continued to whisper and slowly they stopped shaking.

' _ **The little hero', an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. 'Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.'**_

 _ **The voice felt ancient-cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.**_

Zeus started to sweat, it couldn't be him. It just couldn't.

' _ **They have misled you, boy', it said. 'Barter with me. I will give you what you want.'**_

 _ **A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!**_

There were mutterings of, 'That's just cruel.' and 'I'll send him back myself!'

 _ **I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.**_

 _ **I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.**_

 _ **An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.**_

Annabeth and Nico went wide eyed, they didn't know he had almost been pulled in that early.

' _ **Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!'**_

"How about I don't and say I didn't?" _Percy_ replied, trying to get his older self to snap back to his regular self.

 _ **The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!**_

 _ **The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.**_

 _ **I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.**_

Everyone shuddered at that.

' _ **Good', it murmured. 'Good.'**_

 _ **Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!**_

 _ **Someone was shaking me.**_

 _ **My eyes opened, and it was daylight.**_

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

 _ **"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."**_

Everyone laughed, until they saw how serious everyone from the future was. "I'm not joking! In fact it would probably be easier to wake a zombie!" Annabeth said, and the other futures agreed.

 _ **I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. "How long was I asleep?"**_

 _ **"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."**_

"I don't think tossing a bag of corn chips counts as cooking."

"Shut up."

 _ **My eyes had trouble focusing.**_

 _ **Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.**_

Everyone gave the two Percy's a strange look. They both ignored them.

 _ **No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.**_

"Why would anyone want a pink poodle?" Ares muttered.

 _ **The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."**_

 _Percy_ looked at Percy and Annabeth, "What did the poodle say?" Annabeth and Percy shrugged, "Don't know. Grover never told us."

 _ **I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"**_

 _ **The poodle growled.**_

 _ **"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."**_

 _ **"You can talk to animals?"**_

 _Grover_ looked at _Percy_ who was staring at him, "You do know that I'm half goat right?"

"Yea yea yea."

 _ **Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."**_

Everyone burst out laughing. Leo gasping for air asked, "Who would name a poodle Gladiola!?"

 _ **I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.**_

 _ **"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."**_

 _ **"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."**_

Some people were still giggling, "I love the way you manage to say that with a straight face."

 _ **The poodle growled.**_

 _ **I said hello to the poodle.**_

That just sent the demigods back into a fit of giggles, even some of the gods were hiding their smiles.

 _ **Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.**_

"Me thinks that the poodle has a crush on Grover." Leo said in a horrible Sherlock Holmes impression.

 _ **"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.**_

 _ **"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."**_

 _ **"Of course," I said. "Silly me."**_

 _ **"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."**_

"And you say I'm the one that jinxes things?" Percy said, while looking at the two Annabeths. Annabeth rolled her eyes, and _Annabeth_ replied, "You are."

 _ **I thought about my dream-the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.**_

 _ **"Not another bus," I said warily.**_

 _ **"No," Annabeth agreed.**_

 _ **She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."**_

"I'm not even going to question how he knows that."

"It's better that way."

Zeus slammed the book shut. "That's the end of that chapter." He said relieved that he was done reading. Without even looking he tossed the book towards Hades.

Hades read the chapter title to himself, glanced at Poseidon and gulped.

* * *

And done!

Hope you guys enjoyed!

See ya next time!


	19. Chapter 13

Chapter 13!

Hades should take cover, Poseidon will be out for ichor.

I don't own Percy Jackson!

Enjoy the story!

* * *

 _Last time: Zeus slammed the book shut. "That's the end of that chapter." He said relieved that he was done reading. Without even looking he tossed the book towards Hades._

 _Hades read the chapter title to himself, glanced at Poseidon and gulped._

 _Now:_

 _ **13 I PLUNGE TO MY DEATH**_

As he read that, Hades noticed that Poseidon started to glare at the book, and _Percy_ , had paled considerably.

 _ **We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.**_

Percy and Jason just shake their heads, like their shaking away bad memories. Piper meanwhile just rolled her eyes at the two.

 _ **We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.**_

"Paranoia at it's finest!"

 _ **I tried to keep a low profile because my name and pic-ture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.**_

 _ **The picture's caption read:**_

 _ **Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.**_

A wave of seawater nearly drowned said stepfather.

 _ **"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.**_

Apollo and Hermes had matching looks of astonishment, "A daughter of Athena reassuring a son of Poseidon!? Run everyone the world is ending!" Everyone, except for Poseidon and Athena who just rolled their eyes, started laughing.

 _ **The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.**_

 _ **Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the pas-senger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.**_

Piper almost let out and 'awe!' at the mention of a little centaur, but caught herself.

 _ **Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.**_

Thalia's eyes went wide, "You saw the Nemean lion when you were 12!?" Percy rubbed his neck. "Funny thing…" Thalia just rolled her eyes.

 _ **Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.**_

"You still did."

 _ **Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.**_

 _Grover_ blushed.

 _ **"So," Annabeth asked me, once we'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"**_

 _ **"What do you mean?"**_

 _ **"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"**_

 _ **I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her.**_

"And now the same son of Poseidon is going to her for council!" Apollo shouted dramatically.

 _ **Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."**_

Suddenly Hades chuckled, proving Annabeth wrong.

 _ **"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"**_

 _ **"I guess ... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"**_

"Exactly! More proof that I'm innocent!"

 _ **I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.**_

 _ **Where is it? Where?**_

 _ **Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.**_

 _ **Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time- "**_

Hazel, _Hazel_ , Nico, _Nico_ , and _Bianca_ all raised their hands as if to say, 'We would like to disagree.'

 _ **"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"**_

 _ **Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."**_

 _ **"What would you do if it was your dad?"**_

 _ **"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."**_

Percy changed tactics, "Okay what if it was Nico?" Annabeth looked at Percy like he was crazy, "Percy you do know that Nico is Hades's son right?"

"Yes, but answer the question."

"I would try and get him back."

Percy smirked.

 _ **"You're not serious?"**_

 _ **Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."**_

At that the people from the future and Luke all glared at Zeus. Who ignored them.

 _ **"But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital..."**_

Ares looked like he was about to answer that question, when all of the other gods shouted, "DON'T YOU DARE!" Ares wisely decided not to answer how children of Athena were born.

 _ **"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or some-thing. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."**_

 _Percy_ looked over to _Annabeth_ and silently decided that even if their parents hated each other, he would become her friend.

 _ **I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.**_

"Awe!" Aphrodite cooed, young love was always so cute.

 _ **"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."**_

 _ **Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.**_

 _Annabeth_ was mimicking her book self as she answered, "I don't hate him. I wish I could, it would be so much easier if I could, but I don't." She quietly told _Percy_. Who nodded in somewhat understanding.

 _ **"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife-my stepmom-treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."**_

The other demigods that were there, looked at _Annabeth_ sadly. Finally Annabeth took matters into her own hands. She got up and walked over to her younger self. "I know it seems like he hates you, but I promise it will get better." _Annabeth_ looks at Annabeth and sees the truth in her words.

 _ **"How old were you?"**_

 _ **"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."**_

 _ **"But ... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."**_

"Percy! Haven't you learned anything yet! Annabeth can do anything!" Leo said while holding back a laugh.

That's when Athena spoke up. "You know for a chapter titled 'I Plunge To My Death' you aren't falling much."

Poseidon, who had somehow managed to forget the fact that Percy was supposed to die this chapter, paled. Athena smirked.

 _ **"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."**_

Thalia, and Luke chorused, "Awe!"

 _ **I wanted to ask what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories. So I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.**_

"A boy who is considerate? How rare." Artemis commented, while glaring daggers at her brother, who pretended to look offended.

 _ **Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.**_

Leo and _Leo_ 's eyes widened, "I should totally build a giant shopping bag!" they chorused, before looking at each other and high-fiving.

 _ **"I want to do that," she sighed.**_

"No Annabeth! The giant shopping bag was our idea! You can't steal it!" the Leo's shouted.

 _Annabeth_ slapped her forehead, "I don't mean a giant shopping bag."

 _ **"What?" I asked.**_

 _ **"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"**_

"Yes and it still haunts my nightmares."

"Wrong Parthenon Seaweed Brain."

 _ **"Only in pictures."**_

 _ **"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."**_

 _ **I laughed. "You? An architect?"**_

"Ow! Annabeth!"

 _ **I don't know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.**_

"Ow! Stop hitting me!"

"Then stop being ridiculous!"

Hades stopped reading, as he and the other gods along with the mortals laughed at the fight between Annabeth and Percy. Though even they could see that neither of them was really putting any heat into the fight.

After a few more minutes everyone got settled once again and Hades reluctantly began to read again.

 _ **Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."**_

"Annabeth 1 Percy 0!" Leo shouted making everyone laugh again.

 _ **I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.**_

"Planning to take a swim Peter?" Dionysus mocked, Percy smirked and replied, "Maybe."

 _ **"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."**_

Now Hermes and Apollo actually looked like they were going to freak out, Athena looked slightly outraged, and Poseidon didn't know whether to be smug or terrified.

 _ **"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"**_

"Yea, a few times. You know before the whole Medusa incident." Apollo replied, thinking of a new haiku.

 _Grey vs green eyes._

 _Snakes and spiders will fight now._

 _I am so awesome._

Apollo smirked, he would have to write that down after this was over.

 _ **Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess ... the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."**_

 _ **"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"**_

"Percy they didn't **willingly** work together." Piper told Percy, looking at him like he was crazy. "So they still worked together." He replied, thought for a second and then said, "Though now I kind of wish they hadn't invented the chariot."

With that strange statement Hades resumed reading.

 _ **"I suppose," she said at last.**_

 _ **We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.**_

 _ **Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."**_

 _ **"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."**_

Percy stood up and shouted, "For the record, the rest of what happens after this is because she wanted to go sightseeing!" This would've sounded bad except for the fact that he was slightly smirking.

 _ **"Sightseeing?"**_

 _ **"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"**_

 _ **Grover and I exchanged looks.**_

 _ **I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn't very well let her go alone.**_

Aphrodite and Piper (She'll later deny it) awed at how protective Percy already was of Annabeth.

 _ **Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar with-out monsters."**_

 _Percy_ looked at _Grover_ and deadpanned, "Whatever happens is because you jinxed it. I just know it." _Grover_ just rolled his eyes and everyone else laughed.

 _ **The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.**_

In sync, both Annabeth's punched their respective Percy's in the arm for not paying attention.

 _ **I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.**_

Clarisse laughed, "The real paranoia!" Ares smirked at his daughter.

 _ **He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Under-ground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."**_

As one all of the gods and demigods face palmed.

 _ **But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.**_

 _ **"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"**_

 _Percy_ looked at his older self, "Yeah what about them?"

 _ **Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"**_

 _ **"Well, Hade-"**_

 _ **Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place... You mean, our friend downstairs?"**_

Hades actually stopped reading and gave Percy and Annabeth a 'really' look. His children just quietly laughed at the way Grover phrased it.

 _ **"Um, right," I said. "Our friend way downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"**_

Both Annabeth's face palmed, and Hades seriously considered killing the older Percy.

 _ **"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."**_

 _ **"He was there?" I asked.**_

"Don't act so surprised Jackson."

 _ **She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus-the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true..."**_

"And you wonder why he's always angry with you guys." Percy mumbled. Hades was surprised to hear that from his brother's son's mouth.

 _ **"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"**_

"And how do you know this exactly?" Thalia asked _Grover_ who blushed and didn't answer.

 _ **"But then ... how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" I asked.**_

Hades actually looked offended. "I do have other things to do besides watch a group of demigods kill themselves."

 _ **Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.**_

 _ **"We don't," Grover said.**_

 _ **"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"**_

All of the campers burst out laughing at how Percy obviously changed the subject.

 _ **I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.**_

"You can thank your father for that one." Athena said snidely.

"Thanks Dad!" Athena just shook her head slowly. Leave it to a sea spawn to take her seriously.

 _ **We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.**_

For some reason everyone in the room got nervous. Something about that just didn't sit well with them.

 _ **We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.**_

 _Percy_ took on a thoughtful look, "You know I'm curious. How high would I have to be to considered in your territory?" He asked Zeus, but it was Percy that answered him. "Zeus decides that, on how angry he is with us at the time."

 _ **"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.**_

 _ **She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.**_

Something about that description resonated with Hades, he just couldn't figure out why.

 _ **"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."**_

Both Percy's looked at Annabeth and said, "Staying below was an option!?" Annabeth just laughed.

 _ **"Oh, the poor darlings."**_

 _ **The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.**_

Apollo jumped up and shouted, "I don't know who she is but that lady's a monster!" Everyone rolled their eyes and Artemis told him to sit down and shut up.

 _ **I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"**_

 _ **"No," the lady told me.**_

 _ **She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.**_

"It really doesn't though." _Nico_ replied.

 _ **At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick.**_

 _Percy_ nodded his head in agreement, just hearing about it made him jumpy.

 _ **Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.**_

Hephaestus nodded his head like he was planning to redesign the arch.

 _ **I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.**_

Dread pooled in the pit of Poseidon's stomach.

 _ **The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."**_

 _ **"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."**_

 _ **But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."**_

"Of course the way I saw you at the bottom was a little different than I thought it would be." Percy said, slightly laughing, and making everyone else nervous.

 _ **Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.**_

 _ **Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.**_

 _ **I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.**_

Everyone did a double take, did the book just say 'forked tongue'? But Hades reread the paragraph and sure enough it said forked tongue.

 _ **Wait a minute.**_

 _ **Forked tongue?**_

 _ **Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.**_

 _ **"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."**_

"You know this was the first monster I had ever met that was just a little considerate of mortals in the area." Percy said, doing nothing to ease the growing tension in the room.

 _ **"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"**_

 _ **His parents pulled him back.**_

"Smart parents." Hera said.

 _ **The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.**_

 _ **"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."**_

 _ **Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"**_

 _ **"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."**_

Poseidon looked ready to kill Hades but Percy somehow managed to calm him down, not by much, but enough that Hades would go on living.

 _Percy_ looked at Percy curiously, "Out of curiosity, what monster are we facing this time." Everyone looked almost sad when they realised that just by reading this book _Percy_ had become way too used to hearing about himself dealing with monsters.

Percy laughed and said, "She's about to tell us? Me? You?" He shook his head and said, "The Percy in the book."

 _ **She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were side-ways slits, like a reptile's.**_

 _ **The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.**_

Leo smiled crazily and said, "I wonder if I could make Festus do that? It would be so cool!"

All of the campers shuddered at the thought of a full grown metal dragon being able to grow with each roar.

Athena also looked slightly disturbed and turned to Hephaestus, hoping he would talk his son out of it, but found him seriously thinking about the mechanics that would have to go into it. That's when all of the gods became truly terrified.

 _ **The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.**_

Ares snorted, "Wimps."

 _ **The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA-RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS-IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS-EXT. 954.**_

 _Nico_ looked curious, "Do you think that would actually work?" _Percy_ and _Thalia_ looked at their cousin and chorused, "Only one way to find out!" The gods shuddered before looking at the older versions of the three currently planning on how they would call. Thalia was calming Percy, Annabeth, and Nico down.

When the younger three were done planning the prank and the older three were calm, Hades continued.

 _ **I realized I hadn't even uncapped my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.**_

 _ **The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"**_

Suddenly Poseidon went from glaring at Hades to lunging at Zeus. It took Ares, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hades, Percy, Nico, Thalia, Jason, and Frank to get Poseidon to sit back down on his throne and not attack his brother.

By the time they achieved that, they were all exhausted, and looked like they had just fought a ten year war in five minutes. And lost.

 _ **I stared at her. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"**_

If this were an anime everyone would've sweatdropped. "You're kidding me right!? That can't be what he actually said!" Thalia said grabbing the book from Hades and reading for herself.

She then proceeded to slap Percy upside the head while muttering, "Idiot."

Hades himself was trying not to laugh so hard that he didn't even notice the book being taken from him and then returned.

 _ **She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"**_

"Wait-" Clarisse began. "Are you saying that if you hadn't called her an anteater she wouldn't have tried to kill you." She then began to laugh, making everyone agree that it was the stupidest thing they had ever heard.

Then Percy answered her, "Eh. She probably wouldn't have tried to kill me _as_ hard."

 _ **The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing.**_

The gods tensed simultaneously, this was most likely the most dangerous fight Percy had been in so far.

 _ **I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.**_

 _ **I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.**_

Now the demigods were tensing up. This was going south very quickly.

With a strained voice, Hades continued.

 _ **I couldn't let them get hurt. I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.**_

Annabeth was glaring straight at Percy. She had never heard the full story of what had happened in the arch.

 _ **Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.**_

Suddenly before anyone could move to stop him, Poseidon had wrapped a giant water bubble around Percy and _Percy_ had them floating about fifteen feet above where they had been sitting.

Besides being slightly confused both Percy's appeared to be fine. Poseidon sat back down. Daring anyone to protest. No one did.

 _ **I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eyebrows.**_

The tension in the room doubled.

 _ **Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.**_

Leo looked both horrified and excited, eyes wide and messing with stray bits and bobbles he said, "Percy, do you think after this is done we could go find a Chimera and tame it?"

As he was talking Leo somehow managed to create a mini-chimera. That apparently also had fire power, as _Leo_ so found out when he got too close.

After seeing that Percy shook his head 'no'.

Meanwhile Aphrodite was considering getting some kind of restraints on her husband because he looked like he was going to jump up and go search for one himself.

 _ **Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument.**_

Annabeth and Grover looked at Percy and in unison said, "'We?' You are the one up there."

 _ **Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.**_

 _ **That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf.**_

The so far calm exterior of the Olympus throne room was suddenly shattered as storm clouds began to brew. Rain pelted the steps and lightning crashed. Everyone looked between the now standing brothers as they glared at each other. They were also beginning to glow faintly, to the demigods in the room they began to get nervous, it was never a good sign when gods started glowing. It looked like they were going to come to blows when Hades stood up and the entire throne room darkened.

"ARE YOU TWO QUITE FINISHED! WE ARE HERE FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO READ THESE BOOKS, AND I FOR ONE WOULD LIKE TO GO HOME SOON! ARGUING ABOUT THINGS THAT HAVE YET TO HAPPEN SHALL ONLY EVER CAUSE HARM! HAVE YOU NOT YET FIGURED THIS OUT!" While his words were loud his voice was deadly calm.

Poseidon and Zeus glared once more at each other and sat back down. Even they had forgotten what their oldest brother sounded like when he was truly angry.

"Thank you." Hades huffed quietly and began from where he left off in the book.

 _ **My whole leg was on fire. I tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around my ankles and pulled me off balance, and my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.**_

Poseidon tensed, but with a warning glare from Hades he quietly sat glaring at his younger brother.

 _ **I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost. I was weaponless. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to me, but there was no pen in my pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to live long enough to figure it out.**_

Clarisse laughed awkwardly, "That's Prissy's infamous pessimism for you." The other demigods who knew Percy nodded in slightly hoping to relieve some of the pressure. It didn't really work.

 _ **I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"**_

Poseidon glared at the book silently swearing to visit Echidna before any of this ended up happening.

 _ **The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.**_

 _ **I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just ... die. I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I had no sword. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared.**_

"Ah yes most of that is the symptoms of Chimera poisoning. But it makes deliciou-" Apollo trailed off as everyone else in the room turned to glare at him.

 _ **There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.**_

For the first time since the chapter began, Poseidon nodded in agreement with what he hoped Percy was planning.

 _ **If I died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the humans alone?**_

Dionysus looked at the young heroes sadly, being one of the few gods who noticed how all of them looked away from the book and avoided everyone else's eyes. He actually did notice the subtle tells. This was something every hero, no every demi-god, asked themselves. He wasn't a camp director for nothing.

 _ **"If you are the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."**_

 _ **Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact.**_

Athena groaned. The one time one of his spawn bothered to read something and it stopped him from saving himself!

 _ **The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.**_

Everyone tensed up again.

 _ **"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."**_

Poseidon growled, Echidna was most definitely going to be getting a visit.

 _ **She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods.**_

Annabeth seemed to be having a mini-panic attack, at the image of Percy dying.

 _ **I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was in my cradle.**_

All of the gods smiled briefly, a small remembrance of a simpler time. Back at chapter 3.

 _ **I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**_

 _ **But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.**_

Hermes made a 50-50 motion with his hand. "It wouldn't be as powerful than if it was sea water, but you could probably heal the flesh wounds if you jumped now. Not much for the poison though." Percy smiled softly and _Percy_ was kind of freaking out about having the god of death, read about him dying.

 _ **"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face.**_

 _ **"Father, help me," I prayed.**_

 _ **I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted toward the river.**_

Suddenly the book snapped shut and flew out of Hades hands. They all looked up to see Destiny. With a bright smile she said, "Well! That was an exciting chapter wasn't it?"

* * *

I'm alive!

I am so sorry for not doing anything for over two months!

But I'm gonna try and update these in bulk so please bear with me.

See ya next time!


	20. Chapter 14

Chapter 14!

We have less than 200 pages left in the book!

For whatever reason I feel like the last chapter was more tense than others. Do you guys think it was tenser?

* * *

 _Last time: Suddenly the book snapped shut and flew out of Hades hands. They all looked up to see Destiny. With a bright smile she said, "Well! That was an exciting chapter wasn't it?"_

Now:

Hestia was the first to speak up, "It was indeed. May we continue the story?" Destiny smiled sweetly at the oldest olympian, "Yes we may. But if you don't mind Lady Hestia I would like for you to read this chapter." Hestia blushed and accepted.

 _ **14 I BECOME A KNOWN FUGITIVE**_

 _Percy_ freaked out form the bubble he was still in, while Percy just laughed. Everyone else from the future rolled their eyes.

 _ **I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.**_

"You're twelve Prissy. Too young to have deep revelations and laughing in the face of death." Clarisse said, then smirked to freak out poseidon, "Wait until you're sixteen."

 _ **The truth? My only thought was: Aaaagggghhhh!**_

All of the younger kids laughed, despite it being a serious situation.

 _ **The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.**_

 _ **And then: Flaaa-boooom!**_

As Hestia read a giant wave splashed the steps of the throne room, a suiting example of what was happening in the story.

 _ **A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.**_

"Naaaaah. That's too peaceful!" Thalia said while laughing.

 _ **But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage-beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags-swirled up all around me.**_

Destiny snorted, "Maybe your stepfather does live there."

Both Percy's laughed at the idea.

 _ **At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.**_

"Always a good thing."

 _ **Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.**_

Many noticed _Percy_ exploring his own clothes, and he apparently found them dry as well if the look of wonder on his face was anything to go by.

 _ **I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.**_

 _Leo's_ eyes widened curiosity shining brightly in them.

 _ **No way, I thought.**_

 _ **I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.**_

All of the younger demigods looked at the book, eyes wide with wonder. It was probably the most innocent any of the gods had ever seen them. It sent a pang through there hearts when they realised how battle-hardened even the youngest of them already were.

 _ **I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.**_

Annabeth shook her head fondly, "Only you would describe something like that, like that." Percy smirked from the water and mouthed so that only Annabeth could see, "You know you love me!"

 _ **But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.**_

Everyone got excited as they realised that that was the reason Poseidon had no qualms about putting a literal bubble around his son.

 _ **I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like ... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?**_

Now _Percy_ looked at the book with obvious hope and excitement.

 _ **"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you ... Father."**_

Poseidon smiled warmly. It warmed even Zeus's stubborn heart.

 _ **No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.**_

At the word butterscotch every demigod imagined swimming in different types of butterscotch related foods and drooled just a little. Even though lunch was a little while ago, the demigods wanted something to eat.

 _ **Why had Poseidon saved me? The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.**_

Clarisse laughed, "Like Pine-cone face said Prissy. That's much too peaceful for you." Percy, in a very mature manner, stuck his tongue out, making everyone double over in laughter.

 _ **Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.**_

 _ **There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.**_

 _ **I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.**_

Poseidon was slowly starting to smile. He had a feeling about who was talking to his son.

 _ **"Where are you?" I called aloud.**_

 _ **Then, through the gloom, I saw her-a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.**_

Poseidon was really beaming now, making everyone slowly back away from him.

 _ **A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"**_

 _ **No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.**_

Percy smirked and pouted and said through the water, "Why can't every quest be that straight forward?" Making all of the demigods laugh, and confusing the gods. Were the prophecy's not clear?

 _ **"What?"**_

 _ **It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.**_

 _Bianca_ frowned softly, "I feel sorry for her."

 _ **"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who-how did you-"**_

 _ **There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.**_

 _ **I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts...**_

Now everyone was confused, what gifts?

 _ **Her voice faded.**_

 _ **"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"**_

 _ **She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.**_

 _Percy_ looked so sad that Percy whispered in his ear, "Don't worry it wasn't her."

 _ **I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.**_

Poseidon muttered something that no quite caught.

 _ **Your father believes in you, she had said.**_

 _ **She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.**_

Giggles burst from a few, now that they were most certain that the danger had passed… for now.

 _ **I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.**_

"Only some?" _Nico_ said with a half smile at his future cousin.

 _ **I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.**_

Aphrodite tried to hold it back, she really did, but it just burst forward, "Awe! That is so sweet of you!"

 _ **Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.**_

 _ **I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.**_

Nico perked up at the words McDonald's, making Percy and Annabeth laugh.

 _ **A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.**_

Destiny made a motion for Hestia to pause for a moment. "Poseidon, your son is fine. Do you think you could release them now?"

Poseidon blushed, he had forgotten they were still there, and lowered them with a splash, hosing down everyone near them but both Percy's were still completely dry.

Hestia laugh quietly and continued to read.

 _ **A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."**_

 _ **"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.**_

 _ **"But he's dry!"**_

 _ **"That's nice, dear."**_

"Well she's a good mother." _Thalia_ said sarcastically. "That little girl could've wandered off and she wouldn't've noticed!"

 _ **A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."**_

 _ **Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.**_

 _Piper_ would never admit it but she thought it was so sweet how his first concern were the mortals that were still in there when he fell.

 _ **I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.**_

 _ **"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."**_

"Yes cause that makes sense!"

 _ **I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.**_

 _ **I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrrcy!"**_

On instinct Percy began to smile.

 _ **I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug-or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"**_

Percy laughed, "Grover the way we're going _is_ the hard way!"

 _ **Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"**_

"Oh you know the usual." Percy said, trying to act nonchalant while also hiding his laughter.

 _ **"I sort of fell."**_

That sent everyone else into a laughing fit.

 _ **"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"**_

Percy shrugged making everyone laugh all the harder.

 _ **Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"**_

In his best doctor voice Nico said, "This woman is obviously delusional from shock and trauma." Making everyone giggle some more. He steadfastly continued, "My professional opinion is that she should be watched and heavily medicated." That was all he got through before he broke down in laughter.

 _ **"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."**_

 _ **"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me.**_

 _Bianca_ giggled, "Uh-oh."

 _ **"There he is! That's the boy!"**_

"Percy's in trouble!"

 _ **I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.**_

 _ **"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"**_

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

 _ **I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.**_

 _ **"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."**_

 _ **Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."**_

"In your defense you aren't technically a wanted fugitive yet." _Annabeth_ said in between giggles.

 _ **We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.**_

 _ **"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"**_

"Ya think!?"

 _ **Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station with-out getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.**_

Hestia marked the page and announced, "That's the end of the chapter." Then she tried to hand the book to _Grover_ but Destiny intercepted it and handed it to Ares with a slight glint in her eye that sent shivers down his spine.

Then she announced, "Let's have a fifteen minute break to run off some demigod energy shall we?"

* * *

I can't wait for chapter 15! It's one of my favorites!

Tell me what you think!

See ya next time!


	21. A Short Break

Three chapters for almost three months of silence!

I own nothing!

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

 _Last time: Then she announced, "Let's have a fifteen minute break to run off some demigod energy shall we?"_

Now:

All of the demigods nodded ready to stretch after sitting for so long.

By the time they reached the steps of the throne room they had realised that the storm from Poseidon and Zeus's argument had turned the outside area into an ocean.

Destiny walked over, smiled and clapped her hands. Suddenly everyone in the throne room had swimsuits on.

Percy had on sea green swim trunks with little waves bordering them in light blue. _Percy_ had on the inverted version of Percy's swim trunks, light blue with sea green waves bordering.

Annabeth had a black one piece with little grey owls varying in size dotting it. _Annabeth_ had the exact same swimsuit.

Nico had plain black swim trunks with little white skulls bordering them. _Nico_ had dark grey swim trunks with little chibi gods on them. Hazel had a dark brown two piece that had different types of gem patterns on the top and bottom. _Hazel_ wore the one piece version of Hazel's. _Bianca_ wore a bluish-black two piece that had grey see through spirits floating upwards.

Thalia wore an electric blue one piece with arrows pointing in different directions. _Thalia_ wore a more muted sky blue two piece with silver crescent moons dotting it. Jason had dark blue swim trunks with storm clouds and lightning bordering the waist. _Jason_ had lighter blue swim trunks with dark blue lightning bolts.

Piper wore a light brown two piece that had muted pink hearts. _Piper_ just wore a regular light brown suit.

 _Grover_ had ombre trunks that started out green and faded to brown.

Clarisse wore a dark red two piece with black flames and swords. _Clarisse_ wore the one piece inverted version of Clarisse's. Frank had bright red trunks with bear heads dotting them. _Frank_ had muted red trunks with a variety of birds swooping in different directions dotting them.

Leo had ombre trunks that from top to bottom started out yellow and faded into orange that faded into red. _Leo_ had flame red trunks with different tools on them.

Luke had blue trunks and white wind symbols.

Hestia wore a warm orange one piece with a pale red shawl covering her shoulders. Demeter wore a spring green two piece with different types of grain sprouting up from the bottom. Aphrodite wore a bright pink bikini with deep red hearts all over it. Artemis wore a silver one piece with grey crescent moons and a pair of midnight blue swim trunks. Athena wore a deep grey one piece that had light grey owls and parchment on it. Hera wore a royal blue two piece with light green feathers on it.

Dionysus had deep purple trunks with wine grapes on them. Hermes had light blue trunks with green flying sandals dotting them. Apollo had gold trunks with yellow suns. Hephaestus had smoke grey trunks with different types of gears in various colors. Ares had blood red trunks with black fire and assorted weapons dotting them. Poseidon had green trunks with glowing sea green tridents. Hades had black trunks with skulls, jewels and souls dotting them along with a glowing black helmet. Zeus had electric blue trunks with glowing yellow lightning bolts and wind currents one them.

Destiny wore a dark blue bikini top with multi colored stars dotting it and a bluish-black pair of men's swimming trunks with different planets on them.

While everyone else was still in shock of their sudden wardrobe change Destiny shouted happily, ran to the top of the steps and jumped into the newly formed ocean. She surfaced a second later and shouted happily, "C'mon! The water's cold and refreshing!"

Not ones to miss having fun the demigods all began jumping into the water. The gods, wanting to spend some time with their children, shrugged and began to enter the water as well. Though not many actually jumped in.

They all lost track of time as the GWF began. It began with Poseidon dumping water on his two brothers, who then splashed him. Somehow the other gods got dragged onto the three different teams along with their children.

Working with Poseidon was: Hermes, Apollo and, surprisingly, Athena. With Hades was: Hephaestus, Artemis, and Demeter. With Zeus was: Dionysus, Ares, and Hera.

Destiny and Hestia opted out as referees. _Grover_ obviously went with Percy.

It must have lasted for hours, but everyone was having too much fun to care.

In the end everyone was soaked, smiling so much it hurt and had no declared winner.

Finally Destiny stopped laughing and said, "Okay everyone I think it's time we head back in!" Slowly, and quite sadly, everyone got out of the ocean and found towels and warm drinks waiting for them in their spots.

While they were drying off a comfortable silence descended upon the room. That was until they finished their drinks, then the gods started telling the demigods different stories about different things they had seen and done over the years.

Destiny smiled as she saw some of the people in the room nod off and one by one it happened to all of them. Finally there were only three people left awake. Destiny, Hestia, and Dionysus.

"I think this is the first time I've seen our family actually act like a family." Dionysus said with an almost wistful look in his eye.

"That's because they're always so busy bickering about things that happened millennia ago to act like anything resembling a family." Hestia said with a sad sigh. Her fire light the only lighting in the room now.

Dionysus looked at Destiny and then at everyone sleeping, "Do you suppose we should wake them?" Destiny smiled and shook her head.

"Let them sleep a while longer. The book is almost over but the story is just beginning."

* * *

So what do you guys think.

Also I would like to point something out.

There is a difference between a two piece and a bikini.

A two piece is any type of swimsuit that has two pieces but a bikini is basically underwear.

Hope that clears up any confusion that might have occurred when I said two piece for most of them and then bikini for Aphrodite.

Hope you enjoyed!

See ya next time!


	22. Breakfast

I know I know. Two non-book chapters in a row. Big no no.

This was originally supposed to be the beginning of A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers but I ended up deciding that it would make the chapter too long so now it's its own chapter!

I.O.N.

Enjoy!

* * *

 _Last time: Dionysus looked at Destiny and then at everyone sleeping, "Do you suppose we should wake them?" Destiny smiled and shook her head._

 _"Let them sleep a while longer. The book is almost over but the story is just beginning."_

Now:

 **BANG!**

Everyone jolted awake, instantly alert in a way that only someone who just woke up from a deep could be.

 **CRASH!**

The older demigods noticed it was coming from the kitchen. With the grace that only a demigod could possess they made their way towards the kitchen door.

When they kicked it open they didn't really know what to expect. But it sure wasn't what they saw.

The kitchen was a disaster area. Substances of all color and consistency were covering every flat surface except the table. On the table was the most delicious breakfast anyone had ever seen.

There were pancakes, waffles, french toast, chipmunk holes, toast, omelets, scrambled eggs, cereal, bacon, bread pudding, cinnamon rolls, beagles, croissants, muffins, English muffins, fried eggs, quiche, donuts, toaster strudels and scramblers, biscuits, and sausages.

They came in all different flavors and colors, along with the widest variety of syrups, butter, and jams.

The drinks were just as varied. Milk, orange juice, apple juice, tea, water, grape juice, fruit smoothies, pear juice, kool aid, coffee, and wine.

Everyone in the room drooled just a little when a waft of scented air passed by them.

Zeus was the first to regain his composure, "Hestia do you know who made all of this?" Hestia smiled, still in the food daze, and shook her head in the negative.

Suddenly a sign appeared out of nowhere.

' _ **What are you waiting for?**_

 _ **Dig in!**_ '

That's all the encouragement they needed. As one they descended upon the food. The table they sat at was big enough to seat all of them comfortably, as they ate and chatted.

Finally, as they finished Destiny walked in and immediately burst into laughter.

They had been so caught up with the smell of food that they didn't even notice their clothes had become p.j.'s overnight.

When she finally calmed down she clapped her hands and the mess they had made disappeared but their p.j.'s remained. At their questioning looks, she smiled and said, "Until lunch, it'll be nice to just wear comfy clothes for a while.

They all returned to the throne room and Destiny handed Ares the book.

He opened it and began.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed!

Sorry if it took a while to get out.

See you guys next time!


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